Two Faces
by The Mysterious Mr. M
Summary: What would've happened if Zero had not been there to rescue Yuki from Shizuka? How would a Pureblood's bite effect Yuki? And how would that one event bring about the destruction of both the vampiric and human worlds forever? AU
1. Chapter 1

**Two Faces **

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

Summary: What would have happened in Zero had been just a little bit slower in rescuing Yuki from Shizuka Hio? How would the bite affect another pureblood? (Albeit, one who doesn't know it?)

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Title: Two Faces

Setting: The end of chapter 17

Warnings: blood, violence, meaningless fluff, innuendo ect.

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Disclaimer- (This will act as my disclaimer for the entire story, so that I do not need to repeat it) I do not own Vampire Knight or any of the characters involved other than my own creations.

A/N: Alright, first and foremost, this is my first Fan Fiction endeavor in quite a few years. I really appreciate reviews; constructive criticism is welcome, especially because I haven't done this in ages. Thank you very much for reading and without further ado, I present to you this humble fan fiction…

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

change in the same scene

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Chapter One

It had been years since she had last set foot inside the old dormitory. Then, as now, she had been there to see someone, both times a vampire of unimaginable power: a pureblood. But, unlike the last time she had been there, there would be no one there that would come to rescue, no one to ward off attempts on her blood, no one to help her if this last attempt failed.

'_This is for you Zero'._

She knew that everyone who could possible help her were currently entertained at the ball, enjoying themselves like the teenagers that they were. She was truly and utterly alone, there would be no Chairman Cross, or Zero, nor….Kaname. She had no one watching her back as she walked into the lion's den. She made sure that it would be that way. '_No sense in getting anyone into more danger than they are already in anyway'._

She stood on the threshold before the ominous oak door that led to the interior of the old Moon dormitory, still agonizing over her decision. _'There is no other choice, it's this or Zero slowly sinks down to a level Z vampire. And if that happens then the hunters _and_ the night class will be after him'._ She felt the goose bumps rise on her shin at the mental image of a blood covered Zero backed into a corner. She gave a sad smile to the cool night air, _'He's not the only one with few choices left'._

She could stop what she was doing right here and no one would be the wiser. She could somehow convince Kaname to come with her and then she cou-_ 'What are you thinking!'_ she mentally reprimanded herself._ 'Kaname has always been there for you, you can't hand him over to…_ her_'._ She suppressed a shudder at the mere thought of killing Kaname. She sighed, _'this is the only way…'_

She raised both of her hands to the massive door, and pushed it open. It swung open without a sound and offered her a moonlit glimpse into the unused dormitory. Shakily she stepped into the house and immediately had to stop in order for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

"Look at him!"

"He's gorgeous!"

"So graceful-"

"She's stunning!"

"- simply amazing-"

'_Do they _ever_ shut up?'_

Zero was trying his best to not snap at all the Night Class fan girls, he really was, it was just that after an hour of their ceaseless babble about how _beautiful_ and _amazing_ the Night Class was, he had reached his wits end. Quickly stopping himself from thinking about the fastest ways to shut them up – permanently – he was currently trying to occupy himself by searching for Yuki, so unsurprisingly he was now searching for Kaname Kuran. Someone he would rather see six feet under – with a very large hole where his heart would normally be located…

He neared the arched entrance way to the outside terrace, briefly noting the dark shape of the Chairman on the balcony above – only to be blocked by Kaname's infuriating bodyguard. She was wearing a black strapless dress that clung to her body from mid-calf to her neck, with the only opening below her throat, giving just a hint of cleavage to the observer. Around her neck she wore a ruby necklace trimmed in silver, the same color as the embroidered flowers that adorned her dress on several places. The contrast of her dress and her skin seemed to make her light grey hair and pale skin glow; coupled with the fact that she was wearing some type of perfume that made even _his_ heart race, it was amazing that she hadn't been asked to dance already. _'Probably because no one wants to be killed by her –_ _,'_ he smiled inwardly to himself, _'_– _more likely she wants to be close to the damn pureblood.' _

"Move. Now." He knew he should be polite, and that his conduct was unbecoming of a prefect, but he was not about to be nice to a monster like her.

"Master Kaname does not wish to be disturbed. So please go away and try not to cause a scene," her voice was cold and almost emotionless. Much like his voice was when forced to deal with the Night Class. It was fairly obvious she did not want to be in his company any more than he wanted to be in hers.

He decided that her statement was not worthy of a response and moved to pass her and head towards the terrace, when his path was blocked, yet again, by the noble vampire.

"Master Kaname does not wish to be disturbed," she said for a second time, this time allowing a little irritation to creep into her voice. Her right arm was flung out in front of him, while her left took hold of his right wrist. (He thought he heard something pop) "And he will _not_ be disturbed," she lowered her voice so that it came out in a slightly more menacing tone, "is that understood?" she asked, while slowly applying more pressure to his captured hand.

Only a few people ever had the authority, audacity or insanity to order him about: his parents and teachers for starters, followed by Chairman Cross, and as much as he hated her for it, Yuki as well. This girl –no this _vampire_– did not fit _anywhere_ on that list. Zero gave a predatory smile, _'Let's have some fun with her. It's only fair after what she did the last time we met. After all, if Yuki is with _him_ then she is relatively safe… I think…'_

Zero raised his free arm and took her free hand in his. She gave him a curious look. His smile widened even more as he leaned closer to her and whispered so that she could barely hear him over the orchestra's music, "Do you know how to dance?"

The look she gave him made it clear what she thought about his mental state.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Everything had a while sheet over it to protect from the dust that had settled over the entire interior of the dorm. Slightly ahead and to her left there was another set of double doors, which looked slightly smaller than the pair leading to the outside of the house. From the glow leaking out from beneath the doors and the floor, it didn't take much guesswork to surmise that someone was in the room. Yuki just didn't want to see that person; if truth be told she wanted to run out of that building screaming, but for some odd reason she felt she wouldn't make it out the doors if she did.

She shakily made her way to the doors and grasped the cold handles for support. Her legs felt like jelly and her white-knuckled hands were shaking, her heart was racing and her breath came in short gasps. She was terrified, utterly and completely. _'This is for you Zero. This is so that you _and_ Kaname can both live…' _

She took a few deep breaths to try and calm her ragged nerves, and then turned the handles, and pushed. The sudden bright light stung at her eyes like thousands of tiny needles; she grimaced and looked at the ground, tears filling up her eyes in response to the assault. Then she squinted looked up to see the only other person in the room: a smiling young woman sitting on a sofa, as if there was nothing in the world she would rather be doing at that moment.

"So you've decided, huh?" her listless gaze boring into Yuki, as if searching her soul for any indication that she would flee.

Yuki blushed under such an intense gaze, and slowly nodded.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

The aristocratic vampire still had her hand around his wrist like a vise. Neither of them moving, Zero just leaning close to her ear, waiting for an answer, but not really expecting one. _'I _cannot_ believe that _I _am even thinking this- but damn! - she smells good!' _He paused after that thought, _'I can't believe that I just thought that!'_ He inhaled her scent again, and was reminded why that last thought had flitted through his head, and waited for her to say something.

'_What does this human want? He has shown only open hostility towards the Night Class, and now he asks _me_ to dance? Am I not the one who only days ago threatened his life? What is he playing at?' _Seiren contemplated all the different things that such a simple question could be disguised as. She knew that if she said yes, that would leave Kaname unguarded. But, if she said yes, she would be able to keep an eye on the only person in the entire school who had a weapon designed to kill vampires. (And who just-so-happened to also want to see her master dead as well.) It really wasn't much of a choice.

'_Kaname has wanted to talk to that female prefect alone for some time, but allowing _this_ prefect to pass would undoubtedly disturb their time alone. It seems there is only one course open to me then...' _"Fine human, I accept your invitation to dance," Zero gave her another predatory smile, "but only on the grounds that you will not go near Kaname this night. Do you find these terms acceptable?" she raised her eyebrows at the last part and gave him a smug grin.

He frowned. _'This might be an issue. If Yuki is with him, then this deal will make it impossible for me to protect her from him.' _He tilted his head back and looked the vampire dead in her eyes, remembering that the last time they had been this close to each other...he had had a gun in his hand…and she had her hand at his throat. _'But _– _I can still, hopefully, make her night living hell…' _

"I accept your deal."

"Good."

She slowly loosened her grip on his wrist and he thought that he heard something shift back into place. She allowed him to step back from their…ah…_close proximity_…and to lead her onto the dance floor as the band started to get ready for a slow waltz. _'Just my luck. I have a partner for a dance, and it's a slow formal one...'_ Neither knew that at that precise moment in time they were accurately reading the other's mind.

'_Damn.'_

"Ruka, you are never going to believe this…"

"What is it Akatsu- Oh my God! I-Is t-that _her _a-and _him_? On the dance floor!?" Ruka was having a hard time believing what her eyes were telling her, and her mouth was having an even harder time articulating it. She blinked several times and rubbed her eyes, then turned her gaze back to the dance floor where the band had just started a new song (her mind barely registering it as a waltz) and the two most unlikely people in the school – scratch that – the world, were dancing together. They were the subject of many interested pairs of eyes, mostly from the Day Class boys who cried in happiness; this small scene reinforcing their confidence that the Night Class girls were not all out of reach, before quickly remembering that Zero was in a league of his own (at which time the waterworks went into full swing)…

The pair seemed to glide across empty the dance floor, oblivious to the stares from their audience, which had graciously drawn back to witness this moment in Cross Academy history: a Night Class student and a Day Class student together without fighting or being swarmed by admirers. Shiki, Ichijou and Aidou along with their ever increasing ring of dancers continued to dance on, heedless of the commotion that the most reserved member of the Night Class had caused.

Up on the balcony overlooking the hall, Chairman Cross smiled. _'Maybe there is a chance for peace.'_

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

"If you know how to save Zero…I want your help…even if I give myself to you in exchange…" her voice shook, either from fear of what was certain to come, or a warped excitement, even she didn't know.

'_But I knew the answer from the beginning.'_

The seemingly young, kind girl gave a small smile of triumph, "…Come Yuki…"

She offered her pale hand for Yuki to grasp, which she did, and curled her long thin fingers around Yuki's hand. The girl's hand – no, she quickly reminded herself – Shizuka Hio's hand, was ice cold to the touch, as if no blood had been pumped through her veins in a long time. It was the hand of a corpse.

Shizuka squeezed Yuki's hand and forced the prefect to her knees in front of the big stuffed couch on which the pureblood sat like a throne. Yuki was barely able to keep the grimace off her face as she stared the vampire in front of her directly in the eyes. Shizuka moved her free hand to the seat of the couch and pushed herself forewords, closer to Yuki's face. Her eyes slowly changed from their docile light blue to blood red, causing Yuki to be transformed into a little girl all alone on a snowy night long ago…

"…You're a good girl…I thought you'd choose to sacrifice yourself…"

She gently ushered Yuki's hand up to her colorless lips, and licked them. Her half-lidded eyes coolly studying Yuki's face, tracing over every little detail, every curve and crevice, every line and mark and scratch and blemish – until her eyes ended up on the puncture marks on Yuki's neck…and narrowed…

Yuki gave an inward sigh, _'Figures…she would be the type of person who would be pissed about someone drinking my blood before her. At least it was able to help Zero for a while, but hopefully this will save him for good…' _

Shizuka tilted her head to the side and looked at Yuki, "…what is it?"

Yuki's plane face simply looked at Shizuka with only the barest hint of fear as she said what was on the tip of her tongue since entering the room, "Now I think that… it was a good thing that… my blood is favorable to vampires," a sad smile found its way onto her face, "because of that Zero will be saved."

Shizuka did not take that statement all that well – not very well at all – _'She still thinks that she will survive this night…how amusing.'_

Her grip on Yuki's hand tightened to an almost bone crushing force, causing her to cry out in pain, "AH!" as Shizuka's face went almost entirely blank, and her voice too had an inhuman rage to it, "You stupid little girl…I am the one who gave Zero despair, you grew up happily didn't you?" Shizuka gave Yuki a smile with no small amount of fang in it, the message loud and clear: you are at _my_ mercy little human – know your place.

Shizuka tilted her head back and looked down her nose at the girl whose hand she was crushing, and promptly threw Yuki into the back of the couch with a thud.

Yuki tried with all her might to not make a sound and to portray herself as a strong young woman, but being thrown into a solid old couch by a pureblood vampire had a way of throwing that idea out the window. "Umph…" she chocked out, "…damn that hurt." The last part she muttered under her breath, with a glare at the young woman, hoping the vampire in front of her didn't hear the last part.

If Shizuka had heard her, she did not show it. Instead she shifted her weight so that she was leaning over Yuki on the couch, her right hand moving up to brush some hair behind Yuki's ear.

"Eyes that look straight into my own…they remind me of Zero's all those years ago, when I last saw him," a cruel smile formed on her face at the memory. "You've been protected so dearly, _I'm_ envious of you…" she allowed the statement to hang in the air long enough for Yuki to _try_ and comprehend it; which she doubted that the girl would be able to, she was just too naïve.

Yuki's mind kicked into overdrive as those words left Shizuka's mouth, trying to decipher what those words could possibly mean. It made no sense; here was a person who was beautiful, smart and equally respected and feared by the entire vampire world, why would someone like _that_ feel envious of someone like _her_? Someone who couldn't even tell the person she adored that she loved him? "…envious of _me_?" She started to perspire, "You, who is a pureblood vampire?"

At those words, said pureblood's face grew even more emotionless, if that was even possible, a characteristic that her voice did not mirror. "You think that purebloods are happy?" her words carrying just a _little_ hint of the insanity she was known for and the promise of a slow painful death if Yuki didn't shut up soon, the sneer that appeared on Shizuka's face only reinforced that promise. Yuki came to the conclusion that the title of _Madly_Blooming princess was quite apt for the vampire looming over her at that moment.

As quick as the insanity struck Shizuka, it was gone just as fast to wherever it came from. Shizuka's voice immediately changed back to its usual sickly sweet manner. She gave Yuki a syrupy smile and got up from the couch and walked over to a half open door on the other side of the room, all the while talking to Yuki over her shoulder, "That's fine…it's a deal…I'll tell you how to save sweet Zero." Yuki raised herself back into a sitting position on the couch as Shizuka pushed open the door and called down to someone.

"Ichiru…its time…"

Yuki gulped.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

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If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. -- Toni Morrison

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A/N: Well there it is, the first installment of what I hope is a story worth continuing. This functioned more as a set up for things to come more than anything; the real differences will start to show in what is to come. Anyway, I humbly thank you for reading this and by all means review and critique! That's how things get better!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**Chapter Two **

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A/N: Alright, for starters this chapter will, again, not have very much action to it; it is just here to help set up the plot and introduce my version of the VK characters. Secondly, my version of the school is a cross between the anime and the manga versions. The dorms are on the mainland, but the school sits on a man-made island a little off the coast, which is connected to land by two large stone walkways, each of which has a gate at its center. Instead of there being one dorm for each class, Night and Day, there is a male and female Sun Dorm, but the Night Class gets to share one huge mansion. So when I mention a certain character using the water to get around someone, don't freak out. Oh, and there is a huge forest that separates the two dorms, and the nearby town. As for what is in those woods, well, wait and see. (Go look up VK episode one for a close example of what my Cross Academy looks like).

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

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One – Two – Three

One – Two – Three

One – Two – Three

One – Two – Three

They seemed to glide over the dance floor, never paying mind to their surroundings, just dancing to the music. The rest of the couples had gradually returned to the floor after the first few awed minutes of their dance, all the while giving them plenty of space. Every spin, step and turn was done with a grace that none on the floor could match; and none tried to. They seemed on autopilot, seeming to glide over the floor, their eyes never leaving the others face, always waiting for the other to pull away and end the dance, but it never happened. For whatever reason, they continued to dance on as the band played. The hem of her dress fluttering around her like wings, her jewels reflecting the lights overhead and her hair seeming to shine like polished silver; the gaze of all present were drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

He, on the other hand, looked ordinary. The same school uniform that all males present had forsaken for the evening in lieu of a tuxedo set him apart. Not the fact that he was wearing it, no; it was the fact that his shoes were scuffed, his cufflinks dull, his jacket faded from the sun that truly made him stand out like a dandelion in a rose garden. Everyone was dressed up, except him, and he didn't care one iota about his appearance, and obviously neither did his partner. Their eyes never left the other's face, and their eyes never ceased to burn with hate for the other. That more than anything was what made people stay a safe distance away from them, not fear of ruining their moment, but fear of invoking their wrath.

As the last notes from the band faded, all those assembled clapped in appreciation and fled the floor, intent on finding a new partner for the subsequent dance, or getting a drink and a bite to eat. But not the couple of the evening; Zero went and got two drinks and then proceeded to the corner of the room where Seiren had taken up position to continue their conversation from earlier – sans the grip of death.

Seiren took the opportunity to smooth out the creases in her dress that dancing had caused, she had not danced with anyone since she had arrived at the academy. She thought back to the last time she had danced with anyone outside her family – and swiftly came up blank. She smiled to herself, _'what would father think if he saw me dancing with a human?'_ Her eyes wandered over to where Zero was collecting their drinks from a table at the far end of the room, _'I don't think that he would approve,'_ her eyes drifted down to the left side of his chest, to the barely noticeable bulge in his jacket, _'especially a human from _that_ type of family.' _She shifted her blank gaze over to the veranda exit way, and tilted her head to the side, '_where is the girl?'_

"What are you looking at?" Her head whipped around to the speaker who was presently holding out a glass of punch for her to take, Zero looked over his shoulder in the same direction she had been looking. "Nothing, nothing at all," she took the offered refreshment with a deferential nod, "thank you." Zero gave her his patented smirk, a small smug twist of his mouth, and nodded his head in recognition of her thanks.

Seiren lifted her drink to her face, closed her eyes – and sniffed her drink. Zero's semi-good mood evaporated on the spot, "What? Do you think that I poisoned it?" Her eyes flicked open and over to him, then narrowed. "No, but the possibility does exist. You have proven yourself no friend to vampires, and as such I do not trust you," her voice still held no emotion, but her eyes burned with barely contained loathing.

Zero seemed to weigh her words, his head bobbing from side to side as he thought, and then chuckled. "Probably a good idea in the long run," he couldn't keep the smile off his face. She took a sip from her glass and nodded, "I thought so as well." She leaned back and rested against the wall, he followed suite. Zero regarded his glass for a moment before throwing his head back and downing the rest of its contents in one go. Seiren watched him out of the corner of her eye, a bemused smile threatening to erupt onto her face at his juvenile antics.

He smacked his lips and looked over the veranda's entry way, "what do you think they are talking about?" He gave her a sideways glance, "that _is_ why you decided to leave your 'post' right?" He pushed off of the wall and turned to face her, "to keep an eye on me? To make sure that they," he threw his head in the veranda's direction, "were able to have a private conversation?" Seiren's eyes narrowed even more. Her voice took on a decidedly chilly tone, "Yes, and I would be beholden to you if you allowed them some peace for the time being." Zero continued to stare at her, his gaze never wavering even as she stared right back into his eyes; again he was bombarded with the scent of her perfume and the overwhelmingly complete beauty that her dress allotted her, still…

The predatory smile from earlier again came to his face, "Alright, for now, let them have their conversation," he again leaned towards her so that his face was mere inches from hers, "but how are you going to keep me entertained?"

If it was even possible, her eyes arrowed even more.

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

There were certain things that Sayori Wakaba could not say no to: one was any request her late mother made of her, second was just about anything her roommate Yuki asked her to do, another was dark chocolate, and now it seemed she could add another item to that list; the charming smile of one Aido Hanabusa. If she had not been so intent on finding a partner for an upcoming dance, she would never have wandered onto the dance floor, and subsequently never stumbled upon Aido and his merry circle of dancers. Yay for her.

It was for that chance encounter that she found herself hand in hand with said handsome young man and a giggling older girl; she failed to see anything funny in the current situation. A regard that did not go unnoticed by Aido, "Hey! What's with the sour face? This is supposed to be a fun time tonight!" she didn't say a word; she only turned her head to face him and gave him the most expressionless look he had ever seen, even her green eyes seemed listless. He blanched.

"Do I look like I am enjoying myself?" He was taken aback by the question, "Um…" Luckily he was saved by the band ending their current number and the dance partners departing for refreshments. His dance circle followed the rest off the floor.

He retreated to one of the many columns that jutted out from the walls and leaned against it, all the while keeping his gaze on the bored girl who had all but told him she did not enjoy his company. _'I think – I think that is the first girl to ever tell me that they did not enjoy my company.'_ He frowned at that thought, he had never met anyone wh– scratch that, his family and most of the Night Class hated him – _'Damn.' _

But what the girl said still haunted him. "Do I look like I am enjoying myself?" she had said. _'She didn't look like she enjoyed the dance, but how is that possible, everyone at this school (he didn't count his classmates or the Prefects) liked him, he was their Idol… wasn't he?' _

She had been looking so forward to the dance too. She had planned exactly what she was going to wear, what she wanted to do; she had been fixated on making this night one to remember, that was until her perfectly planned evening had been shattered by _him_. All of her planning and preparations ruined in one fell swoop. She had looked lovely too; her shiny honey colored hair pinned back by a pair of brass rose pins, her grey and scarlet high necked dress, accentuated with white roses across her chest from the left side of her neck to just above her right breast, her face covered in a modest amount of make-up for the first time since her mother's funeral, the first _real_ pair of heels she had bought for herself. All the shopping she and Yuki had done in the nearby town was wasted by the _– _what she thought _– _thoughtless actions of one spoiled brat.

'_Oh, I will get you for this,'_ she rubbed her hands together and allowed a smile that would frighten a Level E vampire to grace her face, _'just you wait Aido Hanabusa.' _She continued on that train of thought as she quietly exited the ballroom and started towards her dorm room.

Aido took the lull in the festivities to slip out into the night undetected seconds later.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Yuki could hear the clap of steel toed boots on cold stone steps as whoever 'Ichiru' was ascended the stairs to the room she and Shizuka Hio shared. Strangely she did not fear what was to come, as long as two of the few people she cared about were safe, she didn't care about the cost that needed to be paid.

The archway that lead to the basement was made entirely of stone, just like the steps and the tile throughout the rest of the old dorm. But unlike the rest of the house, these stones seemed to give off an otherworldly feel; a cold menace that chilled Yuki's very bones, yet at the same time seemed familiar to her. That feeling did nothing to set her at ease, if anything, it made her dread whatever was coming up those stairs.

Shizuka continued to survey Yuki's reaction as she leaned back against the wall and waited for her servant to arrive with his "package". "About time Ichiru. I was starting to think you didn't want my little plan to succeed."

The masked figure that stepped through the stone archway elicited an exclamation from the Prefect, _'He looks like…',_ but it was the woman he held in his hands that drew the young girl's attention. The woman could be no older than twenty-five, and had that unblemished pearl white skin that even models did not posses. Her hair was straight and fell to just above her knees, Yuki could not be sure of its exact color, but it looked like a pale blonde bordering on almost white. Her cloths consisted only of a white obi and a white sash that kept everything closed. The oddest thing that captured Yuki's attention though was the resemblance between the unconscious woman and the girl who was smiling at her. _'They're related.'_

Shizuka gave Yuki a smile that screamed 'I am going to enjoy draining you dry!' and walked past this Ichiru person and sat back down next to Yuki. She leaned in close to her neck and inhaled; she let out a chuckle of anticipation, "That's my real body." Yuki barely concealed her gasp, but her brown eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, _'she's sleeping.' _Yuki felt Shizuka's hair against her cheek as she turned her head to survey her real body.

She pushed up off of the couch and slowly sauntered over to Ichiru and her body, "It's easy to save Zero." As she got closer to the two stationary figures, her black lace clad body cut an even sharper contrast to her real one. She raised her left hand and took her real body's hand in hers, "that boy," the other Shizuka started to open her eyes. Her eyes were a pale rose, and when she spoke it was the sultry voice of a siren, "needs only," the younger Shizuka started to close her eyes, "to drink my blood." With those final words, the young Shizuka Hio crumpled back onto the couch, her head coming to rest in Yuki's lap with a soft 'thump'.

Yuki could scarcely believe what she had just heard, "Your blood?!" _'That's it, all of this, just to be told THAT!' _The newly awakened Shizuka Hio nodded to Ichiru, who promptly allowed her to stand under her own power, before moving closer to Yuki and the now unconscious girl asleep on her lap. "Yes…the blood of his master…Shizuka Hio," she flexed her hands, creating fists as if testing that her body had not fallen into disrepair in her absence from it. When she was satisfied that all was well, her gaze again fell on Yuki.

One trait that seemed to have carried over from young body to old were the half lidded eyes, the same eyes that were now boring right into Yuki, and while the other Shizuka was able to set Yuki ill at ease, the older Shizuka's rose eyes were able to completely hold Yuki to her spot even as she trembled in fear. "Then, Zero cannot fall to Level E. He will become a true member of the Night Clan."

She turned her attention to Ichiru, who was standing close to Yuki's right hand, "Ichiru, put Maria's body on the bed." The masked figure didn't say a word as he bent down and gently picked up the sleeping girl from the couch, before heading out the doors that Yuki had come in earlier, doubtlessly to put Maria onto one of the many beds upstairs. As soon as Ichiru left the room, Yuki was treated to Shizuka Hio's undivided attention.

The mad glint in her eyes seemed to return, but with her real eyes the effect was magnified one hundredfold, "Now for your promise," she crossed her arms over her chest, as if she were cold, "I am being hunted…and I need more power. Offer your blood to me. I am to be pitied." She uncrossed her arms and again leaned down onto the couch and closer to Yuki, her long locks of hair seeming to perfectly frame her eyes and face. "I must have your innocent blood…"

'_Why is she being hunted? Is it because of all the people she's killed?'_ Yuki couldn't help but ask the obvious question, "You need more power, but, if you attack the other students…" She was cut off in her musing by Shizuka's hand inching closer to her neck; up to the bow she had worn as part of the gown given to her by Kaname. The pureblood latched hold of it and in one smooth motion, untied it.

"Your blood alone is enough…" she started to breath through her nose, savoring the scent of her forthcoming meal. She allowed the ribbon to fall to the ground, and her now empty hand again climbed to Yuki's throat, caressing it. Her hand then slid up to stroke Yuki's now pale cheek, and to brush some hair back behind her ear.

"Do you understand? What it means for a pureblood's fangs to pierce you?"

She smiled and leaned in towards Yuki's neck…

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

'_What the HELL is this human playing at? I don't get it. I doubt that Aido the Idiot would ever get him to agree to anything, so that means he is antagonizing me out of his own volition._' Her eyes were nothing more than thin lines set into her face by this time, and she knew that, but her title as the Ice Queen was the last thing on her mind at that point; now it was just taking all her self control not to slit his throat with her nails and watch him bleed to death. Something she rather doubted would be received all that well by her peers _– _or the Chairman. _'What more can I do? I have already stalled him as long as I possibly could, and Kaname never _actually_ told me to bar anyone from his presence.'_

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. _'Damn, I don't like this Prefect one bit, at least the girl is respectful, he is just an ass.' _She opened her eyes and her face again took on the characteristics of a marble bust: emotionless. She stared out over his shoulder at the veranda, where she could barely pick out a lone figure standing against the stone railing. She smiled, she had stalled Zero long enough for Kaname and the girl to have their little chat, her job for the evening was over. Moving only her eyes, she stared Zero square in the face, as moving her head would bring her into contact with the side of his face _–_ which she rather wanted to avoid touching at all cost.

"It seems that that will not be necessary. Kaname seems to be done with his conversation," she gave Zero a small smirk, "have a good chat."

Zero sighed heavily into the side of her head; her heightened hearing detecting the underlying frustration he did not display outwardly. "Then I will be taking my leave of you miss," he stepped back, giving Seiren room to breath, but not before taking her right hand in his, and planting a kiss on it, "until we meet again." He gave her his smirk, turned on his heel, and walked towards the dark veranda.

'_Her reaction to that last part was priceless. I just wished I had a camera._' His smirk morphed into another voracious smile halfway across the room_, 'I have got to do that again, she is too fun to tease, not even Yuki blushes like that.'_

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

Seiren couldn't move. Or more precisely, the portion of her brain that usually controlled her motor functions was busy; it was trying to grasp something even more difficult than making an aristocratic vampire, heir to a multi-million dollar fortune move from her current position: why had the last surviving member of the greatest vampire hunting family just kissed her hand?

Now, in defense of her brain, it did do two things for Seiren. One, it gave her a healthy pink hue around her cheeks, and secondly, it made the corners of her mouth curl up into one of the few true smiles she had ever had. Not a bad trade off more several seconds of inactivity…

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Sayori had been thanking whatever Gods were out there that on one had seen her leave the dance. Her night had already been ruined, now all she needed was the entire school believing that she couldn't dance or, heaven forbid, find anyone to dance _with_. Somewhere in the middle of her mental rant of things to do to Aido Hanabusa, she had started to articulate her plans to the cool night air. "_–_ then I'm gonna feed his body to a wood shipper and use whatever remains to fertilize the dorm garden." She stopped to consider one result of her 'fertilization project', "the plants would probably die from lack of substance." She nodded her head, made a mental note to get better fertilizer in the future, and continued walking.

'_What the FUCK is wrong with this girl?!'_

Aido made a mental note to stay even deeper in the shadows while stalking _–_ um, following intently _–_ the girl who had detested his company. He had followed her around the side of the school, all the while listening to her not so silent plans for revenge. The entire time he had been following her he had come to several realizations: one, she has a homicidal maniac who would sooner kill him than look at him, two, every gory detail ended up with him in a garden, as either food or as a scarecrow, and thirdly _–_ well _–_ she was a homicidal maniac. All-in-all, not the type of person he should allow to stay angry at him for any length of time, or ever, he liked the later idea most. He made a quick detour threw some trees and jumped out onto the water that was all around the academy, and using his control over ice turned the top of the water into a crude skating rink, allowing him to make his way past Sayori without her noticing him in the dark, and making her rub her arms from the suddenly chilly night.

He quietly made his way to the entrance to the Day Class girl's dormitory, silently thanking the Gods that there was no gatekeeper, and waited for her to get there so he could apologize and beg for mercy. Aido prided himself on his mind, it was what made him renowned all over the scientific world, and also made him some money on the side… But now, every synapse in his highly intelligent brain was yelling at him to grovel and beg, maybe she would leave out the wood chipper if he was lucky…

That was the moment that the girl his mind was occupied over stepped out from under the gates shadow and continued towards her dorm, and him. She was so caught up in her fantasy of death and dismemberment that she was nearly to the door when she saw him. He was leaning against the wall next to the door, with the outdoor lights making his blond hair seem more like butter than gold.

She stopped dead in her tracks, "what the hell do you want you bastard?" Her fists were clenched at her sides, and her right eye had seemed to develop a slight tick, but all-in-all she was her same cheerful self.

"Um _–_ well you see _–_ you seemed kind of – um – agitated at the dance, so I – uh – decided to make sure you were ok. So – um – yeah – that's why I'm here." He knew it sounded lame, but her manic, hate filled eyes were _really_ starting to get to him.

As soon as the last words left his mouth she seemed to deflate; her eye stopped twitching, her breathing became more regular, and her hands uncurled, her face went slack, "You really suck tonight, you do know that right?"

"Yeah _– _kinda'"

"So, did you come here to apologize, or to beg for your life?" she tilted her head to the side and gave him a sickly sweet smile.

"Or maybe you really came here to _suck_, that is what vampires do, right?" her smile morphed into a smug grin as she arched her eyebrows, as if daring him to say otherwise; about the blood sucking or the vampire part he wasn't quite sure.

"Once you add things up, it's not hard to guess what the Night Class consists of…" she let the sentence hang in the air, allowing Aido to start sweating.

And sweat Aido did, _'there is no way that she was able to put everything together! It's just not possible!'_

"Um _–_ uh _–_ w-what do you m-mean?" he knew this was not going to end well.

"Exactly what I said."

'_That's what I was worried about; Shit – alright now Aido, the responsibility of the Night Class's secret is in your hands, try not to screw it up too badly…'_

He put on his most unamused face and pushed off from the wall, all ideas about groveling for forgiveness suddenly gone from his mind. For the first time since he had started attending the academy he, Aido Hanabusa, would try and behave in a manor that befitted an aristocratic vampire. If he didn't then their secret was out, and Kaname would have his beautiful head on a platter. "How much do you know?"

"Enough _–_ oh! _–_ and before you ask, no I never told anyone," her smug smile never seemed to waiver.

"Good, I'm not that good at erasing memorie_–_ "

He never got the last word out, as the explosion from over by the old Moon Dorm, and the shockwave it sent through the school, attracted his undivided attention.

"Oh shit!" For the first time all night Sayori and Aido were in a verbal agreement about something.

Aido turned to Sayori, "We'll continue this little conversation later,"

"Yeah, I think the huge fireball o' death takes precedence to your little secret."

But her words were heard only by the wind; Aido was already gone.

"You jerk! You're supposed to say good-bye before you leave!"

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Kaname stared at the orange glow off in the distance, now having to deal with half the school pressing against him, crowding the veranda, trying to get a better view of whatever had just happened. He narrowed his eyes at the fire that was quickly spreading to the trees around the Moon dormitory; he turned around and walked against the insufferable horde of students back into the dance hall, and nodded to all the vampires present. No words were needed, his message was loud and clear, "Fix it."

The assembled vampires all left in blurs of speed; save one. Seiren walked over to the punch table and grabbed a glass of water off to one side, added two tablets to it and watched the tablets dissolve into the red nectar of life: blood. Taking the now bloody glass, she walked over to a now sitting Kaname and gave it to him.

"You look like you could use it."

He didn't raise his head, just nodded as he stared into space…

'_What did you just do Shizuka?' _

'_But more importantly,'_ he downed the glass in one gulp, _'where is Yuki?' _

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

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I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. James Michener

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A/N: Well, there is chapter two. Now before you start flaming/screaming/ yelling/ ranting: yes, I did take a lot of dialogue from the manga, yes, some of the characters are a little OOC, yes, I spent very little time with Yuki, Shizuka and Ichiru (they show up next chapter), and yes, a lot of this chapter was fluff. I am sorry. The pace and plot will become more clear as things progress, but seeing as this is my first endeavor in – well – six years, I feel like some time and effort should be put into this story. And now that that is over, I humbly beg you to review this chapter, who knows, maybe your idea will end up in here somewhere?


	3. Chapter 3

Two Faces

**Two Faces **

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

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A/N: First and foremost, my sincere thanks to all who took the time to review this story, your words were _very_ much appreciated. As for my absence over these last few days, my dearly beloved computer decided to up and die on me this week, and I have been forced to buy a replacement. Add to that the stress of cramming for last minute finals at college, and I find myself with very little free time to write this FanFiction. Now that I have moved out of my dorm and am back home for the summer, things should become more regular and my updates more frequent – in theory. And without further delay, I give you the third chapter of this lowly story…

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

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Chapter Three

Senri Shiki was not enjoying his evening one little bit. First he had to contend with Aido and Ichijo dragging him into that ridicules dancing ring of theirs, which just so happened to consist of giggling Day Class girls. Secondly, because of Aido and Ichijo, he had been unavoidably detained in securing a _certain someone_ for a dance. And thirdly, he had not been able to get away back to the Moon dormitory and the comfort of his soft warm bed… _'Why is it that when I'm tired bad things happen…?' _

"Um – Shiki…?" he didn't see who said it, his vision just so happened to obscured by the insides of his eyelids, as he yawned for the umpteenth time that night.

"What is it – ? "

**WHAM**

He jumped headlong into one of the many beautiful types of ancient oak that Cross Academy took pride in preserving through its construction days. Luckily for him, his head was made of sterner stuff; his cloths for the evening were obviously not…

"That! you moron!" that time he caught sight of who was talking to him through the throng of tree limbs that had ensnared him.

'_Why in God's name did it have to be _her_?' _He quickly tried to untangle himself, but only succeeded in exacerbating his problem even more. His left arm was suspended about two feet over his head, his right arm desperately trying to claw at the branch that was forcing itself into his mouth. Both of his feet were thrashing about below him urgently trying to keep a branch from springing back to its original position; which just so happened to be where a bit of anatomy he cared deeply about was currently situated. Obviously by this time any inclination he had towards sleep quickly evaporated; along with most of his dignity.

"You know – I always thought that we aristocrats were supposed to be second only to purebreds in terms of grace. But now that I have been around you and Aido all these years, I believe I need to re-think that theory," the voice came from directly behind him, all he could tell was that it was female, and her voice was dripping with sarcasm; which narrowed it down to only one person, only one person who would disobey Kaname's orders and stop to help him: his close friend Rima Toya.

"So – would you like some help? Or would you rather continue to be beaten up by an overgrown tree?" He could just picture the big cheesy smile on her face, and was quite happy that he was only afforded a close up of tree bark. _'Yeah…I'm never gonna' live this down…'_ He tried valiantly to twist his body out of its present predicament, only to have the limbs holding him up collapse under his weight, and for the second time that night plow face first into a _really_ hard object (i.e. the ground). _'This is not my night is it?'_

From his vantage point on the ground he was afforded the delightful view of Rima doubled over in barely contained laughter. Her two blond pony-tails falling in front of her face, obscuring her dazzlingly perfect white smile, pale heart shaped face, and her red lips. Her dress for the evening had been slightly more risqué than anyone else from the Night Class had worn, more than likely a gift from the modeling service they both worked for. It was dark blue, almost black, and had a split in its side up to her hip. From the waist up it looked like a corset; it was silver with laces the same color as the rest of the dress, which just served to make her already respectable bust line look even more appealing. Not that anyone would be able to see much of it; from her chest to her neck she was covered by black lace, obscuring the viewers' eyes from what they sought…

Shiki pushed himself up off the ground as Rima's head looked up only to laugh even more. Her hand came up from supporting her side and pointed at his pants – or what was left of them…He looked down only to see strips of fabric loosely fastened to his waist by a black belt. Apparently while he was falling and kicking, the tree was ripping and tearing, and doing a marvelous job at it.

His right hand moved up to scratch his head at the sight, which caused Rima to fall to her knees in an even larger fit of laughter. _'Yeah…she is never gonna' let me live this down. I'm just happy she doesn't have a camera.'_ He looked past his tattered pants and down to his – well, what used to be his – shoes. Now they were just pieces of leather waiting to fall off his feet. Shiki messed up his mouth in thought, and kicked out his legs one at a time, each time sending the remains of a shoe flying into the night.

He then started to unbuckle his belt when he noticed that Rima's laughing had stopped. He stopped just as he was going to pull off his "pants" and looked over towards where Rima had been kneeling. She was now standing and looking at him with wide, round eyes. Eyes that were fixated on a point just below his waist…

He smiled, "pervert." Her face quickly went from one of hopeful anticipation to one of disbelief and unhappiness.

"I am not a pervert," she gave him a bashful smile and shrugged, "I just liked the view is all…" she trailed off as she started to blush, causing him to smile even more.

Shiki shook his head and pulled of the pathetic remnants of his pants – revealing white boxers with little bats and coffins on them. He looked over to where Rema was casting furtive glances at him and likewise trying to stifle her laughs. He again shrugged, "My mother and her warped sense of humor."

Rima gave an unladylike snort, "why doesn't that surprise me?"

Shiki just chuckled, and shrugged, "Is it because you know my mother too well?"

"Possibly…" she drew the word out as long as she could, fluttering her lashed and giving Shiki a coy smile.

He shoot his head, "I think we have someplace to be right now, now don't we?"

She scrunched up her face in a cute pout, but followed Shiki through the trees to the bridge and the Dorm beyond none the less.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

As soon as the shockwave hit the school and the light from the fireball lit the veranda, Chairman Cross had already started down the stairs from the level overlooking the dance floor and started to search for his Prefects. He easily spotted Zero's silver head over by the veranda entrance, desperately trying to get the students to calmly go back into the ballroom and stop trying to all crowd onto the veranda. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Kuran walk back into the ballroom, and he was about to go ask him if he had any idea about what had just happened when his path was blocked by a figure.

From where Zero stood, the Chairman cut a dashing figure, his ruffled white undershirt and dark grey ensemble reflected the orange light of the distant fire, making the Chairman seem to glow. The silver embroidery around his collar seemed to have turned into gold, his pearl cufflinks the color of amber. The overall effect seemed to transform the meek man; he was transformed into a giant among men, a captain at the helm of his ship, in complete control and confident in himself. Then the Chairman's eyes swept past Zero and the other assembled students and towards the fire in the distance.

"Sir, what would you like me to do?"

The Chairman looked at Zero as if he had just noticed him standing there, "Wait a moment won't you Zero?

The Chairman's gaze left Zero and returned to the glow that seemed to be coming from near the Moon Dormitory. Behind his fire tinted glasses, the Chairman's eyes seemed to have glazed over, as if the fire in the distance brought back painful memories that should have remained buried in the recesses of his mind. His brow furrowed in thought, jaw set, and sweat starting to trickle down his brow, if Zero didn't know better he would say that the Chairman was scared of something…

The Chairman was usually a very easygoing man. He was very hard to upset and even harder to keep angry for extended periods of time, but the face that the Chairman now wore was one that Zero had never seen on his face before: pure and utter fear. _'What the hell has happened to make the Chairman like this?'_

Zero rolled his eyes, "Sir – what do you want me to – "

"First get all the students to their dorms, if you see Yuki, tell her to help you," his gaze never left the horizon, "I'll call the fire department from the town and see if they can be of some assistance to us." He turned his head for the first time in what felt like minutes, "protect the students at all cost Zero, if you need me I will be at the Moon Dormitory." He turned on his heel and walked back into the ballroom.

Zero sighed, _'where the hell is Yuki, I could actually use her help with this!' _He shook his head and pulled his Bloody Rose gun out from under his jacket, raised it to the sky and fired, which deafened everyone on the veranda with him. "Everyone will proceed quickly and quietly to their dorms," he spoke quietly, apparently if you have a gun in your hands people listen better, "don't stop until you are in your rooms. Your dorm leader will then come by and do a headcount to make sure everyone is there; if there are any problems, you deal with me. NOW MOVE!"

Zero had a hard time keeping down his smile as the Day Class students filed quietly off the veranda and back into the ballroom, and out the doors of the school. He followed the last of the students into the room and looked around. On one table there was a glass which seemed to have been filled with a red substance that caught Zero's attention. He went over to the table, picked up the glass and sniffed it, _'Kuran.'_

He hurled the glass at the opposite wall and walked out the doors, following the direction the students had filed through a few moments before.

He never noticed the two pairs of eyes that watched him from above.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

When Shiki and Rima finally emerged from the trees and arrived at the old Moon Dormitory, they nearly ran headlong into the rest of the Night Class, who were just standing there gawking. Rima plowed dead center into Kain's back, while Shiki nearly made a newly arrived Aido slam into a tree, and while everyone was trying to regain their balance the rest of the Night Class was focused on the scene before them.

"What the hell is going on here?" Rima said as she was dusting herself off.

"No idea what-so-ever." She didn't know who answered her question, but she felt that the last statement was quite apt for the view that they were now looking at. The original Moon Dorm they had all stayed at while their current residence was built was gone. Not destroyed, not damaged or ruined, simply gone. All that was left was a _very_ large, deep crater; it was as if a meteor had crashed into the ground and incinerated everything around it. The stately old trees that had once surrounded the dormitory were now reduced to ash, trees farther away still were burning, and some looked like Aido had simply frozen them to stop the fire spreading. Kain was currently redirecting the fire into the crater where it would burn itself out from lack of fuel.

The rest of the Nigh Class was hurriedly trying to find anything that could possibly account for the destruction of their old "home". Thus far, from what she and a still shell-shocked Shiki could tell, they had been unsuccessful…

Rima hesitantly stepped up to the lip of the crater and looked down into its depths, which were illuminated by the fire that was swiftly burning itself out under Kain's watchful eye. _'It has to be at least one hundred feet deep.' _Her gaze shifted from the fading embers and to the very center of the crater, her eyes narrowed.

"Shiki, could you come here for a second?"

Shiki immediately snapped out of his dazed state and walked over to her side, his feet quickly becoming black from the soot. "What?"

Without even looking at him, Rima pointed where she was staring. "That."

Shiki's half lidded, sleep deprived eyes quickly widened,

"Oh shit."

Rima nodded, "My thoughts precisely."

Shiki looked over his right shoulder and yelled over to Kain, "Kain, you're the fastest here, go get Kaname and find the Chairman, they're both going to want to see this."

Kain's brow furrowed, but he nodded nun-the-less. As he was about to spring away two voices stopped his and everyone else's actions.

Walking up the path that lead to the current Moon Dorm was both the Chairman and Kaname. Both of whom looked very bleak and pale in the moonlight, but as soon as they were both closer to the crater the fire cast a healthy hue on their faces, making them both appear to be perfectly fine.

"I don't think that will be necessary Kain, we are both right here," Kaname said as the two neared the group of vampires. The Chairman nodded, "I thought that as Chairman, it would be wise to be here when the fire department shows up," he gave the cluster of students his brightest grin, "I don't know how well the firemen would listen to you all."

He looked over to where Shiki and Rima both stood, both with raised eyebrows at his smile and manner. The Chairman sighed, _'I get no respect at all…'_

He gave the crowd an exaggerated frown and walked over to the two friends. He carefully leaned out over the edge of the monumental depression and peered down into the darkness, his right hand shielding him from the remaining fire's glare. After a few moments his eyes widened, "Kaname, you want to see this."

Kaname's face remained impassive as he quickly made his way over to the ever growing group looking into the hole in the ground.

His face dropped, and for the first time, the Night Class heard their beloved leader scream – right before he jumped into the crater.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Getting the regular students of Cross Academy to their dorms was not as difficult as Zero first imagined it would be. They moved efficiently and more importantly to Zero, they didn't ask questions. _'Maybe the gun dangling from my hand was something to do with it?'_ he allowed himself to smile inwardly at the thought. "Maybe I've found the way to stop those stupid fan girls from making Yuki's and my job so hard; just shoot in the air and yell at them to leave…" Zero mused out loud. He nodded his head as he thought about all the possibilities, "This has promise."

He followed the last of the Day Class students into their dorm area, where they said good-night to their dates for the evening and went to their respective dorms. He looked over to where the dorm leaders were doing headcounts, _'Good, things are actually getting done – there's a first.'_

"Alright, now go to bed and try not to do anything stupid tonight. As you all might be able to tell, tonight is not a night to piss me off," he yelled it at the top of his lungs and was delighted to see the stunned/scared faces that his proclamation had garnered. _'That takes care of that.' _Without a backwards glance, he turned on his heel and walked off into the woods, heading towards the Moon Dormitory, and the main road that connected the school with the nearby town, intent on finding out what the hell was going on…

Zero made his way through the woods without any incident, his heightened senses made navigating it at night almost as easy as it would have been during the day. His only companions were the inhabitants of the forest; the mice who ran around looking for things to eat, the owls who ate the mice, the raccoons who made their way towards the Sun Dorms in hopes of raiding the trash, a few foxes chasing each other, and what appeared to be a large buck. Other than those few animals, he was alone with his thoughts.

'_I wonder if it's possible for this night to get even stranger?'_ he snorted at the absurdity of his own question, _'Yeah, not too likely. How do you top dancing with an emotionless vampire, getting to shoot and probably deafen a few classmates, and getting to yell at them as much as you want? I almost wish that Yuki was here so she could see this.' _His stride faltered a moment as his thoughts turned to his shorter partner, _'Where has she gotten to tonight?' _His brows creased at the question, he didn't like the fact that Yuki was unaccounted for, especially with "that woman" on campus, even if she was in a younger body then he remembered.

His hand tightened around his gun's handle at the thought of _her. _"Why is she here?" he asked the night, "what is she playing at? Is she here to finish what she started? And is _he_ with her?" At each question his grip got tighter and his eyes narrower. He didn't like not knowing what was going on, and this was one of those times. First she shows up, then not even a week later a huge fire erupts from near the old Moon Dorm. Coincidence? He thought not.

He carefully stepped over a fallen tree and onto the paved road that ran from the school to the town. It was still slightly hot from the heat of the sun, and he was forced to breath through his mouth in order to not breath in the noxious fumes that it produced. _'Asphalt; the worst smell next to sulfur.'_

He caught a bright light out of the corner of his eye. _'About time the fire department shows up,'_ he looked at his watch, _'it only took them fifteen fucking minutes.'_ He walked out into the middle of the street and waited for the fire truck to slow down and stop, making sure to stow his gun under his jacket as to not scare the firemen out of their minds, or to raise questions. He waited a moment with his hands in his pockets, and sure enough, the fire engine slowed to a stop to his right.

A man with a helmet and yellow jacket poked his head out the window, "Hey kid, think you can tell us where this fire is at?"

Zero simply nodded.

The man raised an eyebrow at the silent youth, but opened his door anyway, "then get in, we gotta' get there fast before anything else catches fire."

Zero hoisted himself into the truck, making the compact space even more cramped for the men inside. He motioned with his head further up the road, "Go that way until you see a left hand turn, go down that road and we'll be there."

The driver, a big man with a bushy brown beard, nodded and floored it, sending all the occupants in the engine back into their seats, and Zero half out of the window.

'_I think I figured out how to make the night stranger: death by fire engine.' _

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

As soon as Kaname had yelled, almost all of the Night Class had run to his side. The Chairman had his hand on Kaname's shoulder, trying to restrain the young pureblood from jumping into the crater, but Kaname just shrugged him off without a glance, and jumped in. Ruka had tried to snatch his leg, but wound up on the ground clutching only dirt and ash.

Kain smiled and leaned down and offered her his hand, "Would you like some help up?"

She glared at him, but accepted the offered hand and got back to her feet.

The rest of the Night Class was busy calling after their leader, a few going so far as to try and follow him, only to have Ichijo and the Chairman pull them back.

"It's too dangerous down there; it's likely that only Kaname could make it down and back unscathed, it's best if we all just wait for him up here," the Chairman again offered the assembled vampires his over-the-top smile, which garnered more than a few rolled eyes. He straightened up from where he was holding a young girl from following her leader when he saw a light from near the Moon Dorm.

He gave another delighted smile, "It seems the fire department has arrived! We're saved!" He started to do a little shuffling dance while the rest of those assembled looked around at the almost non-existent small fires; Kain had done an excellent job at getting rid of almost all the fire, the fire department was basically useless now.

The Chairman stopped his dance and walked over to where the engines had stopped and its people were getting out. He had his arm over his head, waving at them and telling them how happy he was about their prompt response. He was shaking the driver's hand, pumping it up and down, when he noticed a silver haired young man leaning against the red fire engine gasping for breath.

He stopped shaking the driver's hand and cocked his head to the side, "Zero? Why are you here, and more importantly, why do you look like you've lost 10 years off of your life?"

Zero's left eye had evidentially developed a tick in the last three minutes he had been in the truck, and his eyes were red from the wind driving into his face as he nearly flew out the window on his way here. With a shaking hand he pointed at the driver who had nearly killed him.

"Ask him!"

The driver had the good graces to at least look a little remorseful, he scratched the back of his neck and chuckled nervously, "Well you see sir, I was told to get here as fast as I could, so I might've gone a _bit_ faster than was safe," he brightened up, "but alls well that ends well!"

The Chairman continued to talk with the driver, as the rest of the firemen poured water on the remaining small fires, all of them talking about how the fire must have burnt itself out, and making their jobs easier for them. Zero's gaze flitted over them and to the huddled group of Night Class students who appeared to be looking over the edge of an enormous crater that looked like it had been made by a bomb. He straightened up and walked over to them, his right hand inching to the holster under his jacket.

As he neared the group he asked, "What are you all looking at?" Aido looked over his shoulder at him, and motioned with his head into the crater, other than that though, no one answered his question. He let out a sigh of annoyance, "I asked what the hell you are loo-"

"There he is!" Rima shrieked and pointed into the crater. Zero's view was blocked by the mass of people in front of him, but he could take a wild guess at who _he_ was…

Sure enough, after several seconds a white figure came walking up the side of the crater, as if gravity held no sway over one such as it. Kaname's white clothes were now closer to grey or black than their original pristine colorless appearance. It looked like he had bent down and stayed on his knees and the ash from the fire had accumulated all up and down his pants, shoes and his jacket's sleeves. But the small figure he held in his arms was unsoiled by the cinders, ash or smoke; if anything she looked like she was simply sleeping.

Kaname stood surrounded by his fellow vampires at the edge of the crater, but he was not listening to their words of relief. Instead he had locked eyes with Zero, as if challenging him to do anything, "I'm going to take her back to the school infirmary. Does that meet with your satisfaction?" His face remained impassive, but his eyes told his real emotion: fear for the girl sleeping in his arms.

Zero's eyes left his and looked at the girl's sleeping face, then shook his head.

"Take care of her."

Kaname nodded, "I intend to."

With those words, he disappeared into a black mist, which was quickly caught by the wind and carried away into the night.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

* * *

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. Baltasar Gracián

* * *

A/N: Well, there you go, the third chapter in my merry little story. Looking back at the first two chapters, each one progressively gets longer; hopefully, that is not a detriment to the story and only serves to enhance it. But only time will tell on that point. Ah, this chapter raises more than a few questions doesn't it? Who were the two figures who watched Zero leave the ball room? Why did Kaname and the Chairman look so pale when they arrived at the Moon Dorm? Where did Seiren go off to? And most importantly, what is going on with Yuki? All will be answered in time – I hope – until the next time we meet my friends! (Please read and review; I like getting ideas on how to make my writing better!)


	4. Chapter 4

Two Faces

**Two Faces **

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

* * *

A/N: Again, thank you to all who reviewed! I'm glad to see that people are enjoying this little fic. Secondly, this chapter is going to deal with a lot of different things, and is going to (hopefully) give you a glimpse of what the plot looks like. It's not going to follow the manga at all, and is probably going to go in a different direction entirely – don't worry though – I've got this planned out! Now that I have finished explaining what this chapter is going to (again – hopefully) I think it's time for you all to read it. And without further a due, I present chapter four of this simple story…

* * *

Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

* * *

**Chapter Four**

The dawn came bright and sunny over the campus of Cross Academy, its light coaxing the flowers out of their nightly reprieve and the students to snuggle even more deeply into their beds. The orange hue that the rising sun cast was almost the same as the fire the night before, but this time no one was awake to see it. The crater's lowest point was now visible to all who would wish to look, and the charred remains of the plant life around the clearing were now able to be seen in all their horrendous, black glory.

The sunrise that morning greeted many different people; Day Class students still irritated that their night of fun had been cut short – the presence of a gun wielding maniac on school grounds only served to make them less likely to articulate their thoughts, but not dissuade them. Night Class students were just now getting into their beds after spending the entire night looking for any clues that might shed some light on why their old dorm had been wiped off the face of the earth, nothing came from their efforts except sore feet and frayed nerves. The Chairman was viable to any who would look, walking towards the school infirmary near the back of the school, all the while silently praying to any Gods who would listen that nothing was wrong – or would happened to – the four people there waiting for him.

Kaien Cross was about ready to start tearing his straw colored hair out – if he could somehow unclench his hands. Things had been going swimmingly until only – he checked his watch – six hours ago. _'Who knew everything could change so fast.'_ He had turned his head for a brief moment, talking to the firemen about how happy he was with their prompt response, and when his attention returned to his students, he was told Kaname and Yuki were gone. He sighed at that moment only a few hours old, _'At least I know she's in good hands.'_

His thoughts turned that person who had his total and complete confidence: Kaname Kuran. Reading the young vampire was almost impossible, but Cross had spent long enough both him and his family to know what he was most likely thinking. This time Cross just hoped that he would do nothing rash, but with the last person he held dear to him in the school's hospital, even the Chairman didn't know what Kaname would do.

'I just hope we are wrong about all this…'

**/FLASHBACK/**

"Sir – what do you want me to – "

"First get all the students to their dorms, if you see Yuki, tell her to help you," his gaze never left the horizon, "I'll call the fire department from the town and see if they can be of some assistance to us." He turned his head for the first time in what felt like minutes, "protect the students at all cost Zero, if you need me I will be at the Moon Dormitory." He turned on his heel and walked back into the ballroom.

The light that the fire gave off shone through the glass windows that lined the entire southern wall, casting a pale orange/ yellow light onto the ballroom's floor. The band's forgotten instruments reflected the light all around the room, one beam of which rested on the pale hand of the Night Class's President. Cross raised his eyebrow at the pureblood and the young woman – he corrected himself – vampire, who was leaning down listening to him. Her eyes flicked over towards him as he neared the two, but otherwise gave no indication that her attention was anywhere other than on Kaname's words. A moment later she straightened up and nodded to Kaname who gave a tight smile in return, then she vanished in a blur of speed.

With her departure, Kaname stood up and faced the Chairman, who had been standing a respectful distance from the two while they talked. From behind the Chairman, a gunshot rang out from the veranda, followed by Zero's loud voice. Both came to the same conclusion, _'He does not know what the word subtle is…'_

The Chairman's eyes lifted to the second floor he had been standing on minutes before, Kaname's eyes followed his up and he nodded. Cross walked over to the stairs that were in the corner adjacent to the main doors into the room, and raced up them as quickly and silently as he could. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he softly trod over to the railing and leaned against it, right next to Kaname. _'How the hell do purebloods do that?'_

They silently watched as the Day Class students meekly filed out of the ballroom while Zero walked over to the table Kaname had recently been sitting at. Zero picked up a glass and sniffed it; his face showed comprehension and then morphed into one of distaste and revulsion. He hurled the glass at the far wall and walked out of the room, completely oblivious to their presence.

The Chairman gave a heavy sigh, turned around and leaned back against the railing, silently praying it would support his weight. He eyed Kaname out of the corner of his eye, "So…should I know what you just told that young lady?" Kaname smiled, closed his eyes and lowered his head, but remained leaning over the railing, "No, this is a family matter; it has nothing to do with the school."

Cross closed his eyes and heaved another sigh, "Kaname, I trust you, but I will not endanger the safety of this school and its students on such a flimsy answer. So I will ask again, 'should I know what you just told that young lady?'" This time Kaname turned and looked at him. The pureblood's face was expressionless, "…she is going to make sure that something I need is where I left it. That is all you need to know."

The Chairman tilted his head back and gave Kaname a knowing smile, "You sent her _there_ didn't you? To the one place you want to never see again, the one place that pains you with the mere mention of its name." He pushed off from the railing and ran his left hand through his hair, "What are you trying to do?"

He didn't expect an answer, and Kaname did not oblige him with one, the vampire simply held the man's gaze.

After several moments of tense silence, the Chairman shrugged his shoulders in defeat, "You're just like your mother. Both of you can the person across from you trust you without saying much." Cross smiled at the memory of the person who showed him a new path in life, _'A pity Yuki never got to know you, but your beauty will live on in her, of that I am certain.'_

Kaname gave the Chairman a small, sad smile at the mention of _her, _"Perhaps, but we both also had a dream in common: to see humanity and we creatures of the night live in peace and harmony. All we have done here at this school, with this class, can be easily undone; we need to continue to try and shape a harmonious future for the world." He tightened his jaw as he thought about how much they – no, he – had to do in order to fulfill his parents dreams of peace. He looked at his "older" friend, "We need to make sure that the Senate does not get in our way, and that _he_ does not arrive here to finish what _he_ started."

Kaname reached into his left pocket and pulled out a container of blood tablets, "These will one day make the taking of human blood unnecessary, and with the stigma of "food" attached to humanity, maybe a peace can actually happen," he offered the Chairman a wry smile, "and if the Hunters don't consider this a trap and try to kill us all."

Cross let out a humorless chuckle, "Yeah, they might be a problem in the long run. And I'm afraid that I don't have much standing with them anymore. My 'mad' ideas about coexistence were not well received when I first voiced them all those years ago, and the fact that I was also the best Hunter they had when I left didn't help matters much." He shrugged his shoulders and raised his arms in an exasperated gesture, "but, well, I followed my conscious."

Kaname nodded slowly, "I'm not worried about the Hunters as much as Rido's supporters in the Senate. If he ever comes back, then our dream is almost dead in the water, and I don't have the political power to do much against him like my parents did." His grip on the container holding the blood tablets was unconsciously tightening, until he felt the Chairman take them away from him.

"Your uncle wasn't very fond of their peaceful ideals. He thought that the human race should be subservient to the vampires instead. Your parents posed a major threat — they had their peaceful reputation and their Pureblood status. He was going to lose the Senate's support, unless he eliminated those who had different ideals than his." The Chairman looked at the tablets he had worked so long and hard to create, "You know what happened next better than anyone."

Kaname was barely able to keep his composure as Cross spoke, the mention of what happened that night was enough to send him into a rage_. 'That night changed everything, and took my princess away from me.'_

"Kaname, I pray that this is just a coincidence, but – "

He looked up, "What?"

The Chairman seemed to mull over telling him or not, but eventually pressed on, "There have been reports of a vampire child associating with one of Rido's old supporters," he hesitated just a moment, "a child with crimson and blue eyes."

Kaname's heart stopped for a moment. _'He's further along than I had previously thought. This is going to make my plans even harder to accomplish.'_

The Chairman's face paled at the sight of Kaname's eyes subconsciously changing into their blood red state; Kaname nodded and walked by the Chairman and towards the stairs, "I think we have been here long enough, we should see to the fire."

The Chairman nodded and pulled out his cell phone and dialed the fire department, all the while following the unusually pale pureblood out the school and towards the Moon Dorms, and for the second time that night praying that nothing was going to happen.

**/END FLASHBACK/**

His thoughts drifted back to the present as his feet guided him into the school, up some stairs and towards the infirmary located near the right rear of the school building overlooking the lake. He stopped in front of the large oak door, one hand on the brass handle, _'Please let everything be all right.' _He braced himself for what might come, and stepped into the medical wing.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

The morning's first rays found three very different people inside the Cross Academy infirmary's waiting room: one sat near the waiting room window, leaning his forehead on the cool glass and waiting for any news from the nurse in charge. Another sat on the other side of the room drumming a Mexican wave on the end table with his left hand and gripping the arm of his chair with his right hand. Leaning against the wall next to the exit was a silent blond haired girl with her head down. Zero and Kaname could barely stand the presence of the other, each little thing they did irritated the other, but they refrained from killing each other out of courtesy to Yuki's roommate.

Yori was the only one of the three who looked like she knew what a shower was; the two boys were covered in ash, dirt, and God knew what else. Both teens had their cloths ripped in several places, and Zero's already lack-luster clothing looked like it was headed for a crematorium as soon as he could change. Kaname's usually pristine white clothes looked closer to grey than their usual fair color. His forearms were almost black, like he had rooted around in black ash looking for something…or someone…

Yori was the only one of the three person group who had slept, showered or eaten. She was dressed in her black school cloths which looked brand new. She prided herself on keeping her cloths in perfect condition, not having a personal life probably helped. She had heard that Yuki was in the school's hospital when she had first come down after her morning routine. She had thought nothing of Yuki not coming in the night before, Yuki always kept odd hours with her Prefect duties anyway, so she had assumed that she was doing something for her father; apparently she had been wrong.

Yori's head remained facing down, but her two green eyes kept darting from one figure to the other. She dared not move; the tension in the air was palpable. Neither of the boys had said anything to her when she arrived to check on her only friend in the entire school, they had merely nodded to her as she took up her position by the door and while they continued to try and ignore the each other.

They had been waiting for close to – in Kaname's and Zero's case – six hours and Yori had been waiting only a little over an hour and a half when the Chairman walked in on their "party". He looked just as bad as Kaname and Zero; covered in dust, soot and ash and the silver accents all over his attire were looking more like brown. The hem of his pants was starting to fray and both his cufflinks and buttons were long gone. He had dark smudges all over his face, while his eyes were surrounded by dark purple rings of insomnia. All in all, the Chairman of Cross Academy looked like _he_ should have been the one in the hospital.

He gave them all his cheerfully fake smile, "Well any news on our Yuki?" The silence that greeted his question was answer enough.

His smile evaporated as he took a spot on the opposite side of the door Yori was standing next to, _'Tough crowd.'_

And do they waited…

…and waited…

…and waited…

…and waited…

Several minutes later – a half hour at the most but an eternity for the four in the waiting room – the nurse, Ms. Aono came out. She was a tall svelte woman with shoulder length black hair and skin the color of almonds. She had large expressive brown eyes set in a heart shaped face, with a small button like nose. Her nails were short and had no color on them, and her toes that peeked out from the front of her sandals were the same. She had on a white lab coat and stethoscope around her neck. Underneath the coat she had on kaki knee length shorts and a royal blue t-shirt. She was also one of the handful of humans at the school that knew the secret of the Night Class. She had to have full medical files on everyone; it was one of the Chairman's conditions when the Night Class was created: the school would need a nurse to look after the students in case of emergencies.

And whatever was happening with Yuki was most definitely an emergency.

The Chairman pushed off from the wall and walked over to Ms. Aono, "Ah…good morning! So – "

"What the hell is wrong with her?"

Every eye in the room came to rest on Sayori, who had her arms crossed in front of her and was staring at the nurse with her electric green eyes. She looked over to Zero who was staring at her with open mouthed awe, even the Chairman and Kaname had their eyebrows raised at her outburst.

'_It's always the silent ones isn't it.'_

Ms. Aono sighed and took the seat next to Kaname. She crossed her legs and steepled her fingers. "To be perfectly honest – I don't really know. There is no sign of brain trauma, or any broken bones or bruises, there's no – ah – _puncture_ wounds," she looked poignantly at the Chairman and then Kaname, "there is nothing physically wrong with her, and as far as my tests can tell, there is nothing wrong with her mind either."

The four people listening to her diagnosis all thought the same thing, _'Ok, so what the hell _is_ wrong with her?'_

As if anticipating the question that was sure to some next she said, "You can see her anytime you like."

The three males grouped around her felt a gust of wind fly past them, open the door and rush into the recovery ward, _'…guess she can be fast when the occasion calls for it…'_

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

When the four figures came into the recovery room they were greeted by the sight of Sayori hovering over the prone sleeping form of Yuki. She had the girl's right hand in her hands and was hysterically rubbing them together like two sticks at a bonfire, as if the heat caused by her actions would revive the slumbering young woman. Zero walked over to the other side of the bed and leaned over Yuki, checking himself to see if there was any mark on her, after a cursorily glance he stepped back and sighed, '_At least _she_ didn't bite her.'_

The Chairman took one of the several chairs near another bed and positioned himself behind Yori, absently noting she had begun to sob into Yuki's listless hands. _'What could have done this? She wasn't bitten, but not even I know what a pureblood is fully capable of…' _He looked over to where Kaname was standing at the foot of the bed, his pale hands wrapped around the iron posts in a death grip as he looked down on his only remaining precious person. _'I wonder if even he knows what is going on?'_

Said pureblood was currently sending a death glare at the only conscious Prefect in the room, _'I should never entrusted him with my princess's care. When she awakens things are going to be _very_ different.' _He loosened his grasp on the metal poles and ran his right hand through his hair and looked at Ms. Aono, "So I take it there is nothing that we can do here?" he gave her a poignant look and nodded towards Sayori.

The nurse knew what Kaname had in mind, "No, not even the powerful forms of healing can help her; right now Yuki's problems are all in her mind." Kaname let out an anguished sigh, 'So not even my powers can help her?' he looked at the face of the sleeping girl in front of him, _'I can't help her…'_

For the first time in nearly ten years, Kaname Kuran felt useless, and it frightened him more than he could ever have believed.

A strained silence came over the group as they all digested the information that had been supplied to them over the last few minutes. Oddly enough it was Sayori that broke the silence, "So she wasn't bitten by a vampire and she doesn't have any other viable signs of trauma. So what is keeping her like this?"

The slack jawed response she got from those in the room with her was the only reply she received; followed by a very loud cry of, "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?" The Chairman's seat had fallen to the floor as he stood up quickly, Zero's jaw was glued to the floor, and Ms. Aono had a small tight smile on her face. Kaname's only reaction was to raise his eyebrows in curiosity. "H-how do y-you know about t-that?" the Chairman's voice was barely audible, but his stammer betrayed his deepest fear: their carefully concealed secret was out of the bag.

Sayori gave a Cheshire Cat grin, "It's really pretty obvious once you put all the pieces together," she turned to face Kaname, "ya' know, it's not _that_ bad a secret. You guys have never done anything wrong to my knowledge, and as long as no one tries to eat me, I got no problem being in a school with you." She shrugged, "Plus we Day Class students don't see you guys all that much anyway," she looked over to Zero, "_some people_ see to that."

She finally turned to stare at the Chairman, whose right eye had developed a slight tick, "I haven't told anyone, and I don't plan to. I don't see how it's anybody's business other than your own. But I've got one question that's been nagging me for a while…" The Chairman swallowed the lump in his throat, "why do Yuki and Zero have to be up all night? I mean, c'mon, they keep the Night Class's secret safe, get no sleep, then get in trouble in class? What's fair in _that_ deal?" She crossed her arms and tapped her left foot while she waited for him to respond.

The Chairman saw Zero lean forward expectantly, wanting to know the answer as well, _'This is not going to go well is it?'_ He cleared his throat, "Well you see Miss Wakaba – um – well –, " she raised an eyebrow, and off to his right the Chairman saw Kaname swallow a smile at his situation, "it's just that Yuki and Zero are the best cut out for their position…"

She nodded several times, "That's bullshit and you and I both know it."

Cross's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, Zero outright laughed and Kaname turned what could have been considered a small chuckle into a rather nasty coughing fit. Ms. Aono rolled her eyes at the childish antics before her, "If you two are quite finished then I would like to point out something to you all," she strode over to the door they had entered minutes ago, she raised her hand and pointed to a sign written in big red letters.

ONLY TWO VISITORS AT A TIME

The Chairman gave the nurse a wry smile, "Sorry about that," he turned to his students, "perhaps we should leave for the time being. There is really nothing we can do right now; now it's all up to Yuki's will." He looked like those last few words had physically injured him, but all those assembled acquiesced to his polite order to leave. They filed out the door into the familiar waiting room, the Chairman stopped to talk with the nurse for one last time, "Send word if there is any change." She nodded, "Of course." She closed the door behind him and left to look after her only patient.

As soon as the door closed behind him, the Chairman was back to his old bubbly personality, "Ah, Miss Wakaba, could I see you in my office for a moment? I promise I won't do anything to you, I just want to chat." She narrowed her eyes at him, but accepted on the condition that she would walk behind him and make sure he didn't try anything funny. He noted absently that she mumbled something about a wood chipper and the bottom of the lake, but put it out of his mind and organized his thoughts for their upcoming meeting.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

As soon as Sayori closed the door behind her, Kaname motioned for Zero to join him over by the window he had earlier used as a headrest. Zero, still slightly out of his normal rhythm after seeing his fellow Prefect in such a vulnerable position, merely walked over and stood beside the pureblood. Both looked out the window and surveyed the grounds; students were using the free day afforded to them by the ball to take a leisurely, easy day of fun. Some were sitting beneath the trees with friends, while others were catching up on homework. Some were standing in a circle near the school's entrance having a conversation about something or other, while a few intrepid souls were playing in the still cold lake, all of whom noted that the willows that grew near the edge had frost on them…

"I envy them."

Zero looked over at Kaname, his raised eyebrows clearly voicing his thoughts on _that_ subject. "Why? What do they have which you, a pureblood vampire, doesn't possess?" He was truly interested in the answer, as far as he knew, Kaname was treated like royalty by just about everyone, what more could he ask for?

Kaname let out another heavy sigh, and leaned his head against the glass, "You were supposed to be her shield, but now I know that is impossible. Yuki is like a force of nature, never to be pinned down unless by her own will, she would never allow you – or I – to have any troubles. She would rather bear our burdens for us, so that only she might suffer and we be happy." A sad smile crossed his face, _'just like mother.'_

Zero nodded at his assessment of his fellow Prefect, _'Well, he's got her personality nailed. Not too surprisingly considering they've known each other so long.'_

"You are right about her, but Kaname -"

"Yes?"

"You didn't answer my question."

Kaname let a small fleeting smile cross his face, "For once I would like to spend a day with the person I love without having to worry about my social position. For one day I would like to not have to worry about being President of the Night Class, or the last of the Kuran family; I would like to be just Kaname."

For some strange reason Zero was starting to empathize with the person to his right, and it was starting to scare him. He hated vampires; they had destroyed everything he loved, and yet over the course of less than a day, he had become closer to them than he ever hoped to be. Riling up the cold Seiren was one thing he could handle, it wasn't going to go anywhere, but sympathizing with the person who was competing with him for Yuki's attention was another thing entirely.

He knew Yuki had always been in love with Kaname; he was her knight in shining armor, come to save her in her moment of need. While he, Zero, was just the person who had lived with her and constantly belittled her, in a sibling sort of way. But she never looked at him with the same eyes she used on Kaname. And now in this one brief moment of insight, Zero discovered that Yuki's feelings towards Kaname were not only reciprocated, but returned even stronger. Yuki was kind and caring, and Zero had taken those characteristics to mean that she felt _something _towards him. But now he was not quite sure, maybe all that time he had sunk his fangs into her neck, she had imagined Kaname doing the same thing, her blood certainly hinted at the thought.

Kaname snapped him out of his thoughts with his next sentence, "When she wakes up, she will find a _better_ shield protecting her. All I ask is that you continue to look after her when she is around you."

Zero bobbed his head in acceptance, now knowing what his new role would be, "I will."

"Thank you." With that Kaname turned and walked over to the door, opened it, and disappeared.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

The first thing she noticed was the cold tile that pressed against her back, and the chilly air that brushed her cheek. Her new white dress was still spotless and warm enough to keep her warm around the school's campus, but it did very little against the cold that was now enveloping her. Her eyes registered only darkness, but off in the distance in front of her was a small crack of light. She could barely make out the outline of a double door that limited the lights access to wherever she was. She pushed herself up off the cold floor, her free hand reaching for the Artemis Rod concealed beneath her dress and in its sheath on her left leg; she wasn't taking any chances. Shizuka or her servant could be anywhere…

Once she was up, she slipped into a fighting stance she had been taught years ago by the Chairman, and waited for something – or someone – to come for her. All the while her mind was racing, trying to figure out where she was and how she got there. The last thing she remembered was Shizuka leaning in to drink her blood, the she felt the two pinpricks that signified a vampire's fangs piercing her skin – something she had gotten used to thanks to Zero – and then suddenly a wave of heat before she blacked out.

'_That still doesn't explain how I got here…' _

Holding the Rod nearer to herself, and turning her head in every direction, surveying her surroundings, then she slowly began to inch towards the light. Her dress shoes made a clacking sound on the hard black stone floor, sending the sound all around her and magnifying its volume tenfold. As she neared the open door she started to feel warmer, it was as if whatever she was moving towards gave off an aura of peace and security. She thought she heard the sound of a roaring fire and the crack and pop of the wood slowly burning. Put at easy by the calming feeling she was receiving from behind the door, Yuki lowered her staff…and then stretched out her right arm and pushed the half closed door open…and was greeted with a familiar sight.

Sitting on a couch facing the door was a beautiful young woman with long chocolate hair. Her amethyst eyes were full of laughter and anticipation; she smiled, revealing her long white fangs and gestured for Yuki to take one of the seats behind her near the fire.

"**I've been waiting so long to meet you Yuki, come, sit by the fire and warm yourself up. We have much to discuss you and I."**

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

* * *

Being an author is having angels whisper in your ear - and devils, too. -- Graycie Harmon

* * *

A/N: Yeah, I left you with a little cliffy didn't I? This might be the last chapter for a while, you see, my younger brother and I are heading up to the Boundary Waters between Canada and the US to do a little fishing. So I will be away from my computer for a little while, but I will try to get something up before I leave at the end of the week, cross your fingers. Well, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter, some of the things mentioned and implied in it come into play in later chapters, and from here on out things start to get a little more fun. Personally I can't wait to write the next chapter, it's the one that actually gave me the idea to begin this project in the first place. TTFN! Oh, and please do review, I enjoy hearing what you guys think about this humble undertaking.


	5. Chapter 5

**Two Faces**

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

* * *

A/N: Yet again I thank all those who were generous enough to review the last chapter! And I do apologize about the time it took me to write this chapter. But I felt it should only be released when it was perfect; many of the things mentioned within this chapter play heavily into the overall plot of the story, and I wanted it to be perfect and clear before I let loose this chapter into the wilds of this site. Now, as a preview of the chapter, there is going to no action at all, just discourse and descriptions of the following conversation. And before I get too many irate reviewers, this is AU, I get to play with the plot and characters of VK however I want to! Oh, just as a hint, I would pay pretty rapt attention to what is said because many of the things hinted at and outright proclaimed impact how this is going to all play out. Now without further ado I give you Chapter Five of Two Faces...

* * *

Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

'**Inner thoughts' **

"**Inner speech"**

* * *

**Chapter Five **

It wasn't the fact that the young woman in front of her was a vampire. It wasn't the fact that the young woman in front of her knew her name. It wasn't even the flash a perfectly white fangs that stopped Yuki Cross dead in her tracks, no not at all; it was the total _lack_ of fear that she felt towards this strange and new vampire that had made certain that her legs would not budge even more than if they had been incased in cement blocks.

And so she stood, her small pale shaking hands clasping tight the Artemis Rod to her chest. With her eyes wide in shock – not fear – and slightly bleary eyed from her seemingly endless night. Her breaths coming in short quick pants, and her knees knocking together so loudly – to her – that she felt that the vampire sitting across from her was sure to notice. Her spotless white dress only enhanced the fact that all the blood had drained from her face faster than ever, and the quivering lump in her now ribbon less throat was not making breathing any easier. Her hammering heart and somersaulting stomach didn't help matters either…

But no matter how much she tried to reason with herself, she could not: she felt comfortable in this vampire's presence. There was a warmth and goodness that just seemed to permeate the room –it did _not_ come from the fireplace – and its source was _her_. That was the only realistic thing that Yuki's mind could come up with, as…odd… as it was. There was no malice or hate directed at her, only the same compassion the Chairman showed to her in times of need and guidance. The benevolent bearing and casual attitude that the vampire in front of her gave off was the exact same she encountered every time she had a private conversation with her "father". Neither one wanted to harm her; only help her.

It was with that thought – and hope – in mind that Yuki's feet suddenly came back to life and carried her towards the two high backed chairs the vampire maiden had indicated earlier. Her heeled dress shoes caught and dragged slightly on the plush white carpet, but other than the slight sound caused by the friction between the two surfaces, her movements made no noise. She unconsciously loosened her grip on the Rod and after returning it to its pocket sized form, sheathed it under her dress. It was, she hoped, a sign of good will and trust before the supernatural girl now off to her right.

If the vampiric girl thought anything odd about her brief moment of indecision, she gave no outward signs of it. And when Yuki finally began to move, her already large smile threatened to split her face in half, and unintentionally revealed even more of her large canine teeth. As Yuki inched ever closer towards the two seats closest to the fireplace, her eyes darting back and forth between vampire and chair, her only companion rose from her seat with an inhuman grace and walked around the other side of her couch, careful to give Yuki space.

When Yuki reached one of the high backed red velvet chairs, she slowly lowered herself down and rested her arms on her lap, careful to cross her ankles like a "proper" lady should. She didn't want the vampire in front of her to think that she was just an uncouth little girl. Her actions seemed to have the opposite effect of what she had planned.

The vampire in front of her raised a delicate eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, **"Wow, I didn't think that you would ever do that without the Chairman's prompting,"** She gave Yuki an amused smile and chuckled to herself, **"you can stop with the 'proper lady routine' Yuki, I know you too well to **_**ever**_** think **_**that**_** about **_**you**_**."** Her small chuckle morphed into full blown laughter as she doubled over and used the back of the chair she was standing next to for support.

To say that Yuki was surprised by the scene in front of her was an understatement. She could count on one hand the number of vampires she had ever seen _laugh_: one was Aido on an almost daily basis, and the other was…Kaname…years ago when she had first come to live with the Chairman. Now she could add another to that select list: the crazy, beautiful and kind vampires in front of her who now had straightened up and was now wiping away tears from her eyes.

Yuki had taken the few moments of silence left over after the vampire's outburst to study her appearance more in-depth. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, but Yuki had always been bad at figuring the ages of vampires – one who was thirty looked the same as one who happened to be eighteen. The girl also seemed to be just slightly taller than her as well, but not by very much, Yuki attributed it to the fact that the girl had _much_ better posture than she did, even in the chair she still sloughed forward a little bit. But the one thing that Yuki was sure of was this: the long hair that went down to the vampire's mid-back was the _exact_ same color of brown as hers, longer, but the same none-the-less. The young vampire's skin was even paler than the white marble that made up the mantelpiece over the fireplace, but seemed to glow from within with a power that made her seem even more regal than any other vampire she had ever met, even Kaname. She had on a simple yellow dress with a brown sash around her middle with no shoes or make-up on her. Her eyes were a beautiful amethyst color that seemed to pop out of her face and just projected warmth and compassion towards Yuki, as if seeing an old friend for the first time in years. Presently, those eyes were now roaming all over Yuki, studying her while she did the same.

While the vampire seemed to not mind being stared at and examined, Yuki didn't share the same feelings. Her eyes left the face of her only companion and started to wander around the room she presently occupied, desperately trying to not be disturbed by the intense gaze that was solely focused on her. The first thing that became painfully obvious was the light: it came from either the fireplace, the large variety of candles, or from the several lamps scattered around the room on various surfaces.

'_There are no windows…'_

Yuki filed that piece of information away for later contemplation, and again started to give the room a look over. In front of the door she had entered was the mauve couch her vampiric host had been seated on earlier, off to either side of it were coffee tables with lamps on them, both blazing. Nearer towards the walls were numerous bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling, all chock full of books of every different shape and size; every one had the well-worn look of being studied many times and Yuki didn't really want to think about the time one would have to spend reading to finish them all…

As her eyes followed the bookcases up to the ceiling she again found herself faced with the sense that the room was not supposed to _ever_ see sunlight. The ceiling was plated in either gold or copper tiles and each seemed to have a pattern on it, all pieced together to create either diamonds or hexagons, some jutting out from the ceiling and some going up into it, all of which conspired to give the ceiling the appearance of actually having depth; it seemed the builders wanted to give the room some semblance of actually having something interesting in it. As if the complete and utter lack of sunlight would so easily be forgotten by its inhabitants…

While Yuki's attention was diverted to examining her new surroundings, her host's mind was racing a hundred miles a second, **'she has to have some kind of idea about where she is…'** her amethyst eyes trailed over her guest's face and followed Yuki's gaze towards the books that lined the walls of her room. **'If only she could have been spared this, I would have gladly sat back and allowed **_**her**_** work to remain untouched,'** she let a small sigh escape her red lips, **'but it looks like that was never meant to happen. Why must Fate be such a cruel mistress?' **

She sat down in her seat across from Yuki and continued to stare at her. And Yuki was either so engrossed in her observations…or she really didn't want to face the young woman sitting across from her…

"**Hehem!"**

Yuki's head snapped to face the vampire who now held her attention.

The vampires smiled, **"well…do you like the room Yuki? I know it's not all that visually stimulating, but if you want to** **learn, then it's one of the best places in the entire world." **

Yuki was not sure how to respond to the paranormal woman. Part of her realized what a dangerous position she now found herself: she was in an unfamiliar room with a strange vampire she knew next to nothing about, she didn't know where Shizuka and her servant were, and the bite mark on her neck that she had been expecting was not there. But the most baffling thing about the entire situation was the feeling that Yuki was getting from her gut: she was safe with this person. Her brain was sending her conflicting messages though: run and run fast. But no matter what the rational part of her said, Yuki had learned long ago that her gut instincts about a person were rarely off (she didn't count Aido, he was just crazy).

"It's a beautiful room, but – if you don't mind me asking – _where _exactly am I? One minute I am sitting on a couch ready to become Shizuka Hio's dinner, and the next thing I know I have my back on that cold stone out in front of the doors." Yuki punctuated her question with a small shrug and raised her gaze to hold the vampire's in front of her.

The fangs that peeked out over the girl's bottom lip didn't help Yuki's internal struggle over her decision to stay, **"right now you are being carried by Kaname Kuran towards the school's infirmary,"** she raised her eyebrows before she proceeded, **"but you are currently within a long forgotten part of your mind."**

Yuki promptly stopped breathing for a second.

'_My mind?'_

"W-w-what?" her voice was barely audible over the crackle of the fire off to their side.

"**You know what I said Yuki, your experience out in the real world allowed me to 'arrange' this little meeting." **

Yuki's wide eyes narrowed, "what do you mean by 'arranged this meeting'?"

The vampires leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her knees, and cupping her head in her hands, her eyes boring right into Yuki's, **"if I hadn't then you would have been in the same boat as Zero: a virtual slave to that **_**bitch's**_** will. By sending out a **_**little**_** pulse of my own power I was able to save you from that fate."**

Yuki leaned back in her chair, "what did you do"

"**Ever seen a barbequed vampire?"**

"No…"

The girl across from her smiled, **"well – I don't think that Shizuka or her henchman will be around to give you or Zero grief for a while, or ever again, I'm not sure if I killed them…" **she twisted her mouth around as if she was trying to figure out what she had just eaten, **"but that is neither her nor there. What I 'called' you here for was to discuss something that I think will be mutually beneficial for both of us."**

But Yuki was hardly paying attention to her words. Instead Yuki gaze had wandered over to the few small items that littered the mantelpiece to her left. There were little knick-knacks from long forgotten toys and what looked like a hairbrush that no longer had a handle on it, there were two candelabras on either end, and what _might_ have been a drawing of dog, if you squinted really hard and had a fifth of vodka in your system, but it was a small faded picture in the center of the ledge that drew Yuki's attention. Or rather a little boy and girl that were in it…

Seeing that her guest was clearly not listening to her, the vampire got up and walked over to the picture and picked it up reverently and brought it over for Yuki to study better. Yuki took the picture from her host with a mixture of nostalgia and dread. She didn't know where she had seen the people in the picture before, but she felt that she _should _know who they were.

The two largest people in the photo were an elegant man and woman. He, tall dark and handsome, she the woman was the closest thing to perfection that Yuki had ever seen. Both of them had brown messy hair, hers curled slightly resting just above her shoulder, his lightly shorter and straighter. Both had dark eyes that were closer to a pale rose than to anything else Yuki could think of, and both were incredibly pale. But while Yuki felt drawn to these complete strangers, it was the two small figure clustered close around the seated woman that held her attention longest.

The young boy was to the woman's left; his pale hand perched on the shoulder of her chair, his dark eyes full of laughter. He, unlike the man behind him, sported a toothy smile that made his fangs seem less intimidating than they could have been. His hair was cut in a mirror image of, Yuki guessed, his father's, but his small suit was dark blue while the older vampire wore a set of clothes that was nearer to black. Both of their ensembles only enhanced the crimson red dress of the woman whose middle was half obscured by the small child on her lap.

It was that small child, no older than four or five, that forced Yuki's mind to remind her that breathing was an important thing. But while she gasped in air she had forgotten to earlier, her eyes and hands were shaking in disbelief. The young girl had long brown hair the shade of her mother's, but straighter and more shiny. Her little black dress was accented by the tiny red sash around her middle, which matched the dress of the woman she was seated on. Her little mouth was curved up in a big smile that only made her amethyst eyes gleam even brighter…

'_Wait – amethyst?' _

Her eyes widened as a sudden thought struck her and she looked up into the longing face of her host, "It's your family isn't it?"

"**Correct." **

Her eyes never left the picture as she knelt down to the side of Yuki's chair and placed her hand on Yuki's knee, **"my mother and father are long dead, but my brother is still alive. He's out there right now, striving to bring our parents' dream to fruition."**

"What was their dream?"

"**For the vampires and the humans to live in peace."**

Yuki let out a small chuckle, "that sounds like the Chairman's dream. He even –"

" – **set up Cross Academy to instruct the future leaders of the Vampiric world."**

Yuki immediately sat bolt upright, stammering as she did, "H-how d-did you know t-that?"

Her host looked down at the floor, let out a sigh, and used Yuki's knee to push herself off of the floor. When she was standing on her own two feet she walked over to the fire place and leaned against the mantelpiece. After another full body sigh, the vampire started to talk.

"**To understand how I know so much about you, we have to go back about ten years. At that time the Senate had very little power, the power was held by the oldest and most powerful of the Vampiric families. The couple who were the face of the family to the rest of the world had seen the hatred and killing between man and vampire go on for thousands of years, and they were sick of it. So, they conceived a plan – a dream really – to help their kind assimilate into the human world and ease the hatred between the two races."**

She turned around and gave Yuki a long poignant look before she started pacing back and forth in front of the fire, her face becoming more animated as she talked. **"They contacted many of their closest friends and political allies and proposed their idea to them all at a ball at their house," **She stopped pacing for a moment, **"only the wife was not in attendance. They were all told that she was not feeling well, but hoped that they all would enjoy themselves and hear her husband's idea out. That was the first time of many that she would be seen by anyone other than her immediate family. Then, a little less than a year later, she was back at her husbands side as if she never left." **

She started pacing again, ignoring the ever growing inclination of Yuki's body towards her, she smiled inwardly, _**'It's nice to see her pay attention during a history lesson, instead of sleeping through it. Especially considering how this lesson might just save her life one day.'**_She continued on with her story, **"Their plans for the future were almost universally praised as genius and progressive, but not all thought that the vampires should 'lower' themselves to the humans' level. Some believed that the human race existed to be enslaved and used by the vampires. The leader of this faction was steadily gaining power, gathering together both ex-humans who believed that their new powers entitled them to do anything they saw fit." **

She stopped in front of the fireplace and peered into the red flames, her face twisting a mask of hatred and malice. **"The leader of that group also was able bring several prominent Senate members under his influence with the promise of power and future **_**favors**_**. With his political power he was able to go behind the entire vampiric world's back and create his army. He used his abilities as a Pureblood to transform power hungry and vicious humans into vampires who wanted slaves and supremacy over others. So one night he decided to get rid of his opposition: the two who had originally proposed the idea of coexistence. His family."**

At the last words, Yuki shot out of her seat, livid, "He _killed_ them? Why would he kill his own family, just because they thought that _everyone_ was equal?"

Her host turned around and stared at her with a look of complete disbelief, but faded into understanding as she looked at her guest. **"You have to understand Yuki the plan that the two put forward did not give the Purebloods any difference in power than a common human. All would be equal, the vampires governed by their Senate, the humans bu their own governments. Yes, there were many details that were too idealistic and the proposal who have taken many, **_**many**_** years to finalize and be accepted by the different governments of the world, but Rido – the leader of the dissatisfied faction – didn't want to take any chances. He wanted their dream to die with them."**

"**So, knowing that combined he stood no chance against them, he sought out the Ancestor of the Vampire Race, the first true vampire and immortal. With his power, Rido would be unstoppable, but once awakened the Ancestor would not serve Rido, he agreed that humans and vampires should live in peace. So he used his powers to take on the form of a child and change everyone's minds. He implanted the thought that the two leaders for peace had a son, and with his immense power it became a fact in the minds of every vampire."**

Yuki's face quickly changed from anger and incomprehension to that of disbelief, "No one has that kind of power. It's not possible; you cannot change every single mind to think that someone exists when he doesn't." She shrugged and shook her head, "No."

The vampire storyteller cocked her head to the side and raised a delicate eyebrow, **"You yourself have seen the different powers we vampires posses, why do you doubt that he would have the power to do so? He who was the first vampire and created our race; he who somehow allowed us vampires to unlock our true potential and powers; he who then rested for nearly a quarter of a million years from his efforts; he who played the role of God to us? **She shook her head, **"No Yuki, this vampire had the power to do so, and did. He also took on the role of older brother to the couple's new born daughter."**

Yuki blinked owlishly at the young woman in front of her, then did so again, and another time after that. Then slowlydown to the framed photo she stillclutched in her hands. "So the girl and boy in this photo are the…Ancestor…and the couple's child, right?"

A nod.

Yuki's eyes traced around the face of the young girl in the photograph and quickly tried to memorize it, only to find that she already had. The little girl was just a smaller, less developed version of the young woman in front of her.

"And the little girl is a younger version of you isn't she?"

A small sheepish smile, **"Guilty as charged."**

Yuki nodded, her curiosity towards how this girl knew so much eased, but her location and the questions that it raised still swirled around in her head, waiting for an answer.

"**Would you like to hear the rest of the story? There isn't much left and it will answer many of the questions I know you have."**

Yuki gulped, but nodded, careful not to look away from the photograph she held in a death grip. She didn't want to look at the young vampire mere inches away from her.

"**As I said a little while ago, Rido wanted his immediate family dead, so he put together a group of about one hundred and fifty vampires loyal to him that did not fear the power the two Purebloods possessed. But he did not count on the Ancestor already being there, he thought that the Ancestor had just gone back into hibernation, once he got to the mansion, he was faced with killing not only two of the most powerful vampires of all time, but his Ancestor as well; his odds weren't that good, and he knew it."**

**He challenged his brother in combat, after he was tired from defending his home from almost all of his cronies, he then used a Hunter's sword to deliver the killing blow to his brother, only to find that his next opponent was his Ancestor. The Ancestor merely picked up the sword that had fallen once his 'father' had turned to dust, and destroyed Rido's body. But he was not able to land the finishing blow; he could not physically destroy his own descendant. With their leader's defeat, Rido's followers grabbed his remains and retreated into the night."**

She paused for a moment, and bit her bottom lip, mulling over what she wanted to say next, Yuki waited patiently, wanting to hear what happened next, **"You need to understand something about vampires to understand the next part of the story. You see Yuki, when vampires get married, we do not exchange vows, instead we exchange **_**seals."**_At Yuki's confused face she explained more, **"do you remember the seal on Zero's neck? Vampires originally created it to keep our creations in line, we have created thousands to do different things over the years. But the one used during the wedding allows you to feel what your spouse feels, and normally when one dies the other goes soon after."**

She stopped for a moment and bit her lip even harder, and allowed a tear to fall from both eyes. Yuki looked up when she head the sniffle that came directly after the two tears and braced herself for what was sure to come. **"So when my father died, my mother knew she did not have long to live. She wanted to protect her only 'real' child, and used the most powerful seal she knew: the impression seal."**

She stopped talking after that, and became very interested in her feet. Her hands twisting themselves in front of her, a reflection of her inner emotions, then with her face still looking at the ground, she started to talk in a hushed whisper, causing Yuki to lean forward to hear. **"The impression seal would allow my mother to close off entire memories and hide anything she felt was not in my best interests. And so, here I am, a prisoner in my own body, while the part of me that knows nothing of being a vampire is free to walk around without my interference." **

"**But my mother did not leave my entirely alone; she endowed me with almost everything she knew," **she waved her hands around at the many books that lined the room, **"and in doing so ensured that I would know everything that I needed about my family history and about my powers as a Pureblood. And while I learned and studied, I was content to let my other self roam free and be happy, while I watched and listened from within."**

It was at that point that Yuki's mind had switched from high speed to that of a snail's pace. _'So, she was trapped – sealed away, she corrected herself – inside while a part of her that knew nothing of being a vampire walked around in the real world.'_ Yuki's thoughts stopped cold as she remembered something her host had said some time ago, '…**you are currently within a long forgotten part of **_**your mind…'**_

'_And she said that she was sealed inside her own mind, so that would mean that – It would mean that – I – I am…' _

The picture in her hands suddenly fell to the floor, the sound of glass shattering not even drawing either girls attention, both had whipped their heads up to look at the other. Yuki's eyes wide in fear and shock, her companion's beginning to water in sadness, **"I was content to stay locked away and to let you live your life the way you were. But now** **thanks to Shizuka the Bitch, it seems that neither of us have a choice."**

Yuki's voice was barely audible, "W-what do you mean 'neither of us have a choice'?"

Her host bent down and picked up the broken picture frame with her right hand, had waved her left over the pile of broken glass, causing the glass to float back to the frame and mend itself without the slightest trace of what had happened to it. She turned around and places the restored frame back on the mantelpiece and answered without looking at Yuki. **"What I mean is, by opening the door into this room, you have severely weakened the seal's power. Now instead of us living separate from each other, you will slowly…fade."**

Yuki's knees started to feel like jell-o and suddenly her body felt too heavy to stand, so she took several weak steps back and flopped back into her chair. "What d-do you m-mean?"

The vampire in front of her turned to face her once more, eyes nearly red with unshed tears, **"Eventually our very souls will start to attack one another in a bid to see who will have control of the body. It's like when your white blood cells attack anything that is not naturally from your body, but in this case it would be like your cells being obliterated by the disease. My power would destroy your soul, or switch our positions, and you would be in this room for as long as I chose to live."**

Yuki pulled her legs up to her chin and snuggled into the chair, resting her head on her knees. Her attitude faded from one of fear to that of resignation and dread, she looked over to her "other self" – a term she was slowly beginning to understand – and gave her a weak smile, "so I guess I should get used to this place huh?"

The vampire in front of her gave her a cold sneer, **"So that is how you want to do it Yuki? Give up and embrace your fate? I thought you had more spirit than that to simply give up. Apparently I was wrong about you."**

Yuki's attitude did not change, her voice only gained a little more fire to it, "You yourself said that you would win, that your power would easily defeat me. So why even try, all my life I've seen what vampires can do with their powers, and I know that I don't stand a chance against yours, especially if you're aPureblood." She tilted her head down and rested her forehead on her knees, sufficiently hiding her face from view, but not the soft sobs that she made.

"**You idiot."**

Yuki's red tearstained face whipped up to face her other self. "What do you mean?"

The vampire in front of her seemed to be amused by the newfound venom in her question, **"Why do you think that I told you all that? Do you think it was simply to kill time? Are you really **_**that**_** dense?"**

Yuki's face turned livid as she practically flew out of her seat and into her vampiric side's face, "No! I figured that you gave me the history lesson so that I would feel bad for you and just let you take _my_ body!"

The vampire mere inches from her face smiled, **"Actually it was to let you know about your family and their hopes for the future of your kind. But I must admit, your idea sounds pretty good too." **Yuki glared daggers at her, **"But – there is another solution to our problems. And yea before you ask I mean **_**our**_** problem. I know what it is like to spend years in this room, and if I get your body you will be in here for a long time; we Purebloods tend to live for a little longer than mostly anything."**

Yuki's anger was quickly supplanted by curiosity, "And how to you plan to fix _our_ problem?"

"**We merge." **

"What?"

"**You and I become one."**

Yuki tilted her head to the side, "How do you intend to do that?"

Her other half let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to the doors that Yuki had opened upon her arrival. She took each of the two doors in hand, and closed them only to reveal the intricate set of lines, letters and colors that Yuki had never seen before. **"This is the physical embodiment of our mother's seal. Now, if I use all my knowledge of seals I should be able to have our two souls merge into one being, with all of our memories and powers. That way we both will live on, but not remain quite the same people we are now."**

Yuki gave her a skeptical look, "Are you positive that this will work?"

Her other self gave her a look of sincere hurt, **"You doubt me?"**

"Yep."

Her doppelganger's face fell, and she quickly gave a small cough before speaking again, **"As I was saying, I've devised a new seal that will most likely fuse us together into one being comprised of each of our best traits…or it could kill us. I'm not really quite sure about this; it has never been done before." **

Yuki actually smiled at the last part, "Why not? It's not like I really want to spend the rest of eternity in this room – comfortable as it is – and for whatever reason, I trust you."

Her vampiric self nodded and turned to the closed doors behind her, cut her index finger on her fang, and started to write over the existing seal. She left some parts alone, added to some of the seal's designs, and in several cases added something entirely new, all of it as foreign to Yuki as a different language – which it was in essence. But just as she was going to add something to the center she stopped and turned towards her human half.

"**You know, we never properly introduced ourselves did we?"**

"Um, no, we didn't."

Her more graceful self bowed, her blood smeared dress and hands making her look like a cross between a butcher and Lizzy Borden, **"Yuki Kuran, at your service."**

Her other half gave her a slight bow as well, but her face was white as a sheet once she processed her vampiric self's name, "Yuki Cross…"

Kuran nodded and gave her other self a big grin as she scrambled to process what her last name meant for her dreams. She turned back to the almost finished seal and drew a little smiley face in the center, completing it. As she did, she heard a thump from behind her, and gave herself a half-hearted smile. _**'Goodnight Yuki Cross, the next time you open your eyes, the world might have already changed...' **_

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

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If I'm trying to sleep, the ideas won't stop. If I'm trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness. -- Carrie Latet

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A/N: Well, there you go, sorry for the wait. I wrote three different versions of this then decided to do a fourth which combined the best of all three. Also, the quote just above this is a pretty apt description of what happened to me, so blame my muse for my lateness. Anyway, this is where I start to completely shift the plot away from the manga and towards my own depraved ideas (As if the huge fireballs and dance scenes were canon to begin with). In any case I will leave you all with just a little clue as to where this might all be going: Chapter 38 page 29 – read between the lines!! And once again thanks for reading.

You're getting closer…

…closer…

…you're almost there…

There it is! The Review Button! Quick. Hit it!


	6. Chapter 6

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**Two Faces**

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

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A/N: First and foremost, I HATE Matsuri Hino! I won't say why precisely for fear of giving away what just happened in the newest chapter, but I will say this: that _item_ and its reaction to _someone_ had already been written up by _me_ and played a minor role in one of the upcoming chapters. So now it is safe to say that I will be changing a few things before posting anything new (I _so_ called what happened to it!) Secondly, I would like to thank all those who were able to find the _Review Button_! Yeah! Cookies for you all! In all seriousness, thank you; I love reading reviews, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. And now without further delay, the sixth chapter of _Two Faces_…

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

'**Inner thoughts' **

"**Inner speech"**

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**Chapter Six **

Of all the different buildings that made up Cross Academy, only one was able to inspire the awe, beauty and wonder that its architect had originally intended: the main building. With its century's old stonework, which had been subjected to all of nature's different wraths and had eventually made the once daunting façade less intimidating. Its original purpose could never have been grasped by its present occupants these hundred-or-so of years after its construction. Meanwhile, the Sun Dormitories, while much more approachable and accommodating, did not make their inhabitants feel more like home. True, it did have bright colors, swimming pool, garden and just about anything its residents could want, it did not make them feel better just by walking through its doors. The greenhouses, the boat house, the sports facility, none of them were able to make the people who walked into them feel anything. Even the venerable Main Building did not make the people who passed through it feel like they were home, if anything it intimidated them – a fact its creator would have been glade to hear...

But no, only the Moon Dorm could set its occupants at ease.

Most of the students who attended Cross Academy wanted to live in that special dorm: the Day Class girls wanted to be nearer to the subjects of their unrequited love and admiration; some wanted to live in it because of the mystique that surrounded it and its residents. Others just wanted to get away from their annoying roommates. But no matter what their reasons, they all had one ulterior motive to wanting to live in that special dorm: they wanted to see if the rumors about it were true.

During the construction of the Moon Dorm nearly a decade ago, the students at the Academy had seen the numerous trucks and construction vehicles going in and out from the walled off construction site. But what they thought more interesting than the huge walled off area were the different _items_ that were being brought in. Oh no – they couldn't see _what_ was brought in – but they could see the names on the trucks and some – mainly the girls – noticed something odd: the trucks going in were not the average run-of-the-mill companies, instead only the finest contractors were called in to supply the Moon Dorm with its facilities. Which quickly made almost every person in the school at that time want to transfer in upon its completion. And once they were denied their chance, they soon started speculating about what could possibly be in that Dorm; and the legend and mystique of the Moon Dorm only grew more upon the arrival of its inhabitants…

From the first day the Night Class had been introduced, the Moon Dorm had been looked at as the epitome in living by everyone from the Chairman _and_ the Night Class down to the Day Class students who had grown up on tales of all the amenities that the dorm surely had in abundance.

It was those longed for amenities that Seiren was so thankful for.

As soon as she had arrived back at the Moon Dorm after her trip for Kaname she had dropped off the item he had requested she retrieve on his desk before briskly walking to her dorm room – right around the corner from Kaname's.

Seiren was a lucky girl in several respects: firstly, she had no roommate to worry about keeping her awake, secondly, she had the complete trust of Kaname Kuran, which counted for more than gold in almost the entire vampiric world, and lastly, she had one of the most luxurious bathrooms in the entire dorm.

She had her own private bath and glass enclosed shower, and the white tile that comprised her floor was hidden below a plush black rug. Her marble counter top held her sink above her waist and several soaps and towels but otherwise her bathroom looked unused. Her towels were pressed and perfectly straight, compliments of the Moon Dorm's maids, and no matter how wet she got her black rug, it was always dry the next time she entered the bathroom. There was no hint of make up anywhere in either of her rooms – she never had the time or reason to wear it…

Upon entering said bathroom, she turned on the lights and quickly started a shower for herself, then gave herself a once-over in the long mirror that extended the entire length of her counter top while the water gradually warmed up to scalding.

Her reflection was not her usual simple, composed – some might say cold- self. Instead, she looked like she had been put through a blender; it was as simple as that. Her jewelry had probably been lost somewhere between running out of the forest around the school and arriving at her intended destination. The fact that those jewels were worth more than the average person made in a year gave her no pause, they were presents from her parents when Kaname had picked her to be his confidant, and meant very little to her. Her heels had been lost in the forest as well, and her dress was ripped in too many places to count. Her miniscule amount of makeup was no longer present on her face, having been stripped from her face by her right sleeve, which now looked more like an artists smock than a formal dress that had been looked at with envy hours before.

Her body, meanwhile, had no blemish upon it at all. The only indicator that she had done anything other than walk back to her dorm was the light pink blush that adorned her cheeks. She wasn't flushed, but she was by no means her normal alabaster self. It seemed running thirty miles, searching through a very large old study and desk, then running back to the Academy in less than five hours was just slightly more exhausting than she had originally thought.

'_It seems I might need to start running again. But that would leave Kaname unguarded, which would be the thing I am trying to avoid happening. This presents a slight dilemma.'_

After giving herself one last once-over, she started peeling her grimy, dusty, battered dress from her body. She didn't even think about having it fixed, she could just as easily buy another one when she needed it again. She threw it at the far wall where it landed next to the Jacuzzi she rarely used. It wasn't as though she didn't _want_ to use it, it was just that she never had the time to – it was the same for most of her bathroom facilities and alone time – non-existent. She was either sleeping, studying or looking after Kaname; she never had the time to worry about her appearance anymore, but only a very small portion of her cared about it anymore.

She stepped into the shower and let the scalding water fall all over her, and proceeded to wash the filth that her body had accumulated over the last hectic day. As she washed her thoughts turned to the item Kaname had asked her to acquire from…_there_.

'_I wonder what it is. It had to be of some importance for it to be so carefully hidden, but why would Kaname need it now out of the blue like this?'_

She furrowed her wet brow at that last part, and then widened her eyes as a thought popped into her head, _'Where is he?' _

True, she didn't need to be with him 24/7, usually once they were behind the wall surrounding the dorm Kaname didn't need her much. She was usually left to do whatever she wanted during that down time. But after he sent her out to do different things for him, she usually returned right to his side again, but this time he was not there waiting for her. Nothing too odd, Kaname always did whatever he wanted and he often kept weird hours, but for something like _this_ – she expected him to be pacing his room waiting for her to return.

'_It's not like Kaname to go off without at least –' _she frowned, _' – no, he would go off without telling someone wouldn't he?'_

She quickly switched off the shower and wrapped a towel as she got out.

"Alright Kaname, where did you get off to now?"

She didn't even bother to turn the lights off or close her door as she quickly found and dressed in her school attire and then hastily exited her room, intent on returning to her missing leader's side.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Ms. Aono had been having a fairly easy time of it at Cross Academy. There had been only minor scrapes and bruises and only two broken bones during the last semester. Most of the time her hospital wing, consisting of twenty beds, was deserted. Which was what every doctor wanted to see, no one hurt, which left her with nothing to do all day but read her favorite mangas and collect her paycheck at the end of the week for doing very little.

That wasn't to say she was a bad doctor, quite the contrary, she _was _very good at what she did, the students at Cross Academy just weren't stupid enough to hurt themselves too badly. More often then not, she was filling out prescriptions for medicine the student was already on, or just giving out cold medicine. So when Yuki Cross had come into her infirmary out cold with no visible signs of trauma or bite marks, she was stumped. All she could do was put her on a solution of regular fluids to make sure Yuki was comfortable, and thus far Yuki was still soundly resting.

If anyone had walked through the wing without knowing anything about her patient, most would have assumed that the girl was simply taking a nap, but her machines and scans told a different story. Yuki's mind was racing and it looked like every portion of her brain was working at the same time, something that normal people couldn't do voluntarily. Meanwhile, her heart rate was very low and she had been sweating since she had been brought in by Kaname hours ago.

Needless to say, Ms. Aono hadn't had time to read her precious manga. Instead she concentrated on keeping careful track of Yuki's vitals conditions', that way she would be able to see any changes in her current state. And so, for the last five hours, she had sat there and watched over her ward.

And there had been no change in Yuki's condition.

Until that moment when her heart rate monitor started picking up speed until it was back within normal parameters.

Ms. Aono sighed and gave a tired smile to the tossing teen in front of her, " It's about time Yuki, I'm not sure I could spend another twelve hours watching you sleep." And so grumbling, Ms. Aono walked back to her office and dialed the Chairman to inform him that Yuki was about ready to come to.

'_Now where did I put that manga?' _

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Sayori Wakaba was not scared in the least about her current situation, quite the contrary, she was _livid_. Upon leaving the infirmary's waiting room and following the Chairman back to his office for – as he put it – "a little chat", and spending nearly an hour listening to the obviously insane man ramble on about murders and how she was not to inform anyone of the Night Class' secret, she had been given a choice. Her acceptance of the before mentioned choice was what found her sitting on her lonely dorm room fumbling with the brass clasp of a long, thin wooden box.

She couldn't say she hadn't seen it coming, especially after her questioning the Chairman's use of his "children" as the school's private guardians, but she hadn't honestly believed that he would listen to her – let alone agree with her!

She placed the long box down next to her lap and flopped back onto her bed. She really hadn't realized how depressing the room could be without her friend. Sure, she was used to being alone at night – with Yuki being out performing her Prefect "duties" and all – but in the back of her mind she knew that Yuki would be coming back eventually; now she might not be coming back at all. True, Ms. Aono had said that there was nothing _seriously_ wrong with her room mate – Sayori was pretty sure that unexplained _coma_ qualified as serious- but Ms. Aono also didn't know what _was_ wrong with Yuki either…

But while Sayori looked up at the plane white ceiling she finally decided on a course of action…

She would _kill_ Yuki as soon as she was discharged from the infirmary for getting her into such a predicament, and having to spend an hour with that maniac of an adopted father…

**/FLASHBACK/ **

Sayori was not as intimidated by the Chairman like most of the students were. For one, she knew him slightly better than most of the school – being his adopted daughter's room mate probably had something to do with that – and she also had been over to his lodging for dinner once or twice since she had started there. But that only gave her a more confident feeling as the two walked in silence towards his office. She wasn't afraid simply because the Chairman couldn't pull off intimidating to save his life. Yes, he was the man who could throw her out of school, but she highly doubted that he would do anything major to her today. More likely, he was going to give her a stern talking to and order her to never reveal the Night Class' secret to anyone – which seemed redundant seeing as she had told Kaname she wouldn't anyway but…

Sayori figured the silent treatment that was being directed at her as they walked was more for the Chairman to organize his thoughts about what to tell her rather than to cow her into doing as he asked. He didn't give the impression of someone who would do that to a student under his care, reprimand them yes, but not intentionally scare them. So while they walked from the hospital wing to his office on the other end of the Main Building, she decided to simply do nothing. She had nothing to hide and already explained how she had figured out the Night Class' secret, what more could he ask of her?

If she had only known what he _would_ ask of her, she would have probably thrown herself out the closest window…

When they arrived at the Chairman's office he offered her a chair before sitting himself behind his desk and peering at her through his dirty glasses.

She returned his gaze with an unflappable smile and smoothed out her skirt.

The Chairman smiled at her levelheaded and calm demeanor and let out a small chuckle, "Soooo…Miss Wakaba, what are we going to do about all this?"

She looked up from her lap and scrunched up her face in mock-thought, "I don't have the slightest idea what you are thinking about Sir, all I know is that my best friend and roommate is currently in _your _school's infirmary after an encounter with some _unsavory_ person."

The Chairman wasn't what scared him the most: it was either the sickly sweet voice in which Sayori had just implied that Yuki had been attacked by a vampire, or the fact that she was more than likely right about it. As much as he wanted to believe that no student at his school could be responsible for his adopted daughter's condition, he was a realist, although he oftentimes didn't act like one – the odds were on one of the Night Class's members being behind her coma.

'_I'm getting too old for this…'_

He steepled his fingers and tapped them against his lips, his eyes roaming over the young girl's head – desperately trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the last 24 hours. _'What do I do? We have no idea when Yuki is going to wake up, I have a large hole in my forest, I have a student who may have violated my rules about taking blood from humans, I have another student who knows the Night Class' secret, and to top it off, Zero is going to be the only thing protecting the Night Class during passing periods.' _He suddenly paled at the thought of what Zero might do to the fan girls – he knew the Night Class would be fine fending for themselves, _'besides, they need to learn how to interact without supervision,' _but he feared what Zero would do to the screaming fans without Yuki there to stop him…

Involuntarily a groan escaped him, "Oh dear God – they won't last the week!"

Yori was now starting to question her decision to follow this blatantly obvious mad-man into his private office unaccompanied. Sure he promised not to do anything to her – but he could just as easily break that promise, and she doubted that either Zero or Kaname would object to her being excluded from the secrets of the Academy. The only reason she hadn't fled from the room screaming was that she doubted that the Chairman would do anything to his comatose daughter's best friend; she was banking on Yuki's current condition to keep the Chairman's attention off of her – thus far it had worked out fairly well…

The Chairman abruptly stood up and started towards a glass cabinet in the corner to the right of the door. As he passed by Yori she thought she heard him mumble something, but she was only able to pick out a few words that were suspiciously close to "gunshots, lawsuits and migraine". Luckily she was facing his back, so he never saw the wide eyed look of pure terror she gave him – whatever was in the cabinet was the only thing he was focused on.

The Chairman pulled a necklace out from the dirty white ruffles of his destroyed formal attire and proceeded to skim over the various items dangling from it, looking for something. As soon as Yori had heard the distinct sound of lots of small metallic things – keys, she thought – clanging against each other, she started to rise from the seat she had been in and started edging closer to the door; if the Chairman tried anything, she was going to make him work for it, and she was no slouch in the 500 meter.

But it seemed the Chairman's attention was on whatever he currently was doing: sorting through the numerous things on his necklace. There were rings of all different sizes and shapes, some gold, others silver, onyx, and other different precious ores. Some had valuable stones set in them, others were plane, while a few looked to be etched with different symbols and runes. And jumbled in with the numerous odd trinkets on the chain, were what Yori would guess to be about one hundred different keys.

Old skeleton keys, shiny new ones that had car companies engraved on them, rusty old keys that looked more like small saws, and a few that looked like the Chairman had wrapped tape around the handle and written what they went to on them. It was one of the later that the Chairman plucked from the necklace and inserted into a small keyhole on the side of the glass cabinet, the other occupants of the chain clanging against each other whenever he moved his hand.

With a soft click, the cabinet's glass door opened and the chairman grabbed a long wooden box that had previously been pressed up against the back of the case. Tucking the box securely underneath his arm, he locked the cabinet back up, and simply put the chain and all of its oddities into his jacket pocket. And, while continuing to mutter to himself, he walked back to his desk and deposited the box right in front of where Yori had been seated a moment ago.

He blinked once…

twice…

thrice…

…his left eyebrow rose in confusion as he gazed at the unoccupied seat in front of him, "now where did she get off to?" He swiveled his head around his office until he found an amused and slightly wary Sayori Wakaba looking at him from near the door.

"How did you get from there," he pointed at the chair, "to there," he pointed to where she was currently standing, "without me seeing you?"

"I walked," she deadpanned.

The Chairman seemed to mull her answer over a moment before he said, "that makes sense…" he trailed off as he looked down from her and to the long wooden box resting in front of him. He brightened up immediately, "Ah – yes – you're probably wondering what – ah – this thing is…" He trialed off as he looked between the box and Sayori – who now had an upturned eyebrow of her own after watching the Chairman's antics – "why don't you open it and find out what it is."

Again Sayori's face held no emotion, "what?"

The Chairman smiled and rubbed his hands together like a kid on Christmas morning while his eyes flicked continuously between the two, pleading with her to open the box and discover its contents. She allowed her eyebrow to drop back in line with her other one and slowly walked towards his desk, her head cocked warily to the side. Yori slowly lowered herself into the chair and looked at the Chairman's eager face.

"What's the catch?"

His excited face slowly turned into one of seriousness, "remember that question you asked me in the hospital wing?"

"Yes…"

The Chairman gave her a sardonic smile…

'_I'm not going to like this am I?' _

**/END FLASHBACK/ **

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

He hated every minute she was in that bed. Every minute she just lay there lifeless and nonresponsive, he felt more and more useless. He knew what Shizuka was capable of, he had seen the end results of her work with his own two eyes, but he never would have thought she would stoop as low as to attack Yuki. The only reason Yuki would even have been in the situation to be attacked was because of him.

He had let her get too close to himself as the years had gone along.

But he couldn't stand the thought of not being near her. Sure he was here to carry on their dream, but all he wanted was to see her grow up…

Kaname had been sitting in his current position for nearly two hours, ever since he had left the Kiryu boy in the waiting room. He had his back to the fountain behind him, and his right leg was resting on his left knee, his already destroyed uniform getting even more dirt and ash on it from the underside of his shoe. He didn't care.

The only thing that made him stay here was her, and if she was gone – well, the Senate would learn what a truly "mad" vampire could do. And he doubted that they were suicidal enough to lock in up, that would cause an uproar throughout the entire vampiric world. And killing the "last Kuran" would spell their end…

'_If she wakes up she will be better protected. I don't care what anyone thinks, _this_ will never happen again.'_

He ran his right hand through his long hair and heaved another sigh. These last few hours had been even more taxing than he had ever expected. Learning that Rido had somehow stolen a boy's body and was traipsing around with one of his old supporters – and probably solidifying his standing with his old Senate supporters – hadn't made him as nervous as having her unresponsive in a hospital bed. The only thing that looked like it might have turned out for the best was his talk with the Kiryu boy; now that he had confessed to him about Yuki, maybe Zero would take the hint and stay away from his princess…

"You can come out now Seiren."

He saw a shadow slip out from behind a tree to the right of his vision and move silently towards him. His eyes left the figure of his bodyguard and again looked back towards the Main Building that was now bathed in the bright sunshine of early afternoon. She noiselessly waited a few steps away from him, waiting for the answer that was sure to be asked.

"Did you find it?"

She nodded, small droplets of water falling to the ground from her damp hair, "It took longer than expected, but I found it." Her face was unreadable as she stared at him, _'I've never seen him like this. Upset yes, but this is more…'_ she searched for the word, _'…grave.'_

He swiveled his head to face her, looking her up and down, "You took a shower and changed. The place must be in worse shape than I had imagined."

She gave him a turn of the lip that _could_ have been interpreted as a smile, "It's in your room. I looked at it only to verify if it was what you wanted…the place must have been beautiful in its prime."

Kaname gave her a tired smile, "It was, and will be again – given time." He looked back to the school and ignored the stares of the few students also in the courtyard that afternoon, "Seiren I'm going to ask you to do something that you are going to hate me for."

Her only response was to minutely raise an eyebrow.

"While you were off collecting that item for me," he sighed, "it seems Shizuka attacked Yuki."

Seiren raised her other eyebrow.

"While she was not bitten, she is currently in a coma, and I fear that Shizuka might try and finish what she started, that is after all why she was here to begin with."

Seiren nodded and smirked, "this doesn't have anything to do with that large hole in the ground doesn't it?"

Kaname didn't smile, "the others are out in the forest looking for Shizuka, or her ashes. But I don't think they will find anything, she isn't about to let herself die quite yet. But – if she survived, like I think she did – she will be out of the equation for quite some time."

She was silent for a few moments before she nodded, "what is it you need me to do?"

"Be at her side from this moment on," Kaname stood up and looked her square in the eye, "be her shield, like you have been mine."

Seiren closed her eyes and nodded, resigned.

"Thank you Seiren."

She gave him a small bow, "Oh course my Lord."

They exchanged no words as she silently followed him towards the school.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Zero had been leaning against the wall since Kaname had left hours ago, but in all reality, he hadn't noticed that time had passed at all. He just leaned there, letting his mind wander from one idea and topic to another, more-often-then-naught unrelated in any way. He was just _there_. He wasn't in shock, or heartbroken, or angry – he wasn't really _anything_. That wasn't to say that he was apathetic – he did care for Yuki – he just wasn't devastated that Kaname had all but said that Yuki was his and no one else's.

He allowed his head to flop forwards and rest on his chest, inhaling the scent of his clothes as to try and forget he was in a semi-sterile environment. He hadn't really noticed the lack of any smells or anything else that signaled that this was indeed part of a school – he guessed that his worry for Yuki had dulled his perception of the world around him for a bit. But now he was starting to hate antiseptic more than anything in his life: it didn't hide the scent of blood like a normal room did.

The lack of other people also meant that his hearing had tuned into other living things near him. Namely Ms. Aono and her beating heart just beyond the door to his right. Just thinking about her and her bloody beating organ made his gums hurt. His fangs hurt worse the more he spent in this room without something or someone to distract him – and that didn't look all that likely to change…

He brought his head up when he heard the handle of the waiting room's entrance turn. The door swung open to reveal a now clean and smiling Chairman.

His head twisted left and right around the room and finally came to rest on the rooms only other occupant – Zero. He beamed at him and walked over to him, "Ah! – you've been here all this time? I knew deep down you cared for your sister!"

Zero let out a tired groan at the Chairman's words and pushed off from the wall, both a little happy and exasperated to now have a distraction.

"I haven't left since she was brought in," he said with a nod towards the closed infirmary door.

The Chairman's smile grew even wider – if that was even possible, "Ah! – but in that area there is now good news. Yuki is waking up, or will be in a little while!"

Zero allowed a small tired smile to form on his face, "That's good. I thought we might have to wait longer than that for her to wake-up."

The Chairman started nodding his head very quickly at that, "I thought so as well, but it seems that nothing can keep our Yuki down for long!" He punctuated his remark by pumping his right hand into the air and laughing loudly.

"So it would seem."

Zero and the still posing Chairman looked to the figure standing in the open door that once again admitted another person into the waiting room.

Kaname, like Zero, was still wearing the same dirty school clothes he had worn the last time the three were all in the same room. But the young woman behind him looked like she had just gotten her uniform back from the cleaners. Seiren silently followed her Dorm President into the room, and walked over to the closest door to the infirmary and sat down.

The Chairman and Zero, both knowing about how Seiren liked to be near Kaname at all times, raised their eyebrows at both her actions and Kaname's seeming indifference. Both of their attentions were brought back the Pureblood when he coughed.

"I have a favor to ask of you Chairman," the Chairman blinked at Kaname, "I would like to have Seiren transferred into the Day Class. That way Yuki would always have someone to protect her."

Zero bristled at the last sentence, aware that Kaname had basically told him that he didn't think that Yuki was safe with just him around. He clenched his right hand into a fist and tried to control his anger as Kaname continued to speak to a more than slightly confused Chairman.

"I think that it is time for Yuki to have a _shield_ that – a," but Zero didn't even pay attention to the rest of Kaname's sentence. He allowed the corners of his lips to rise into an imperceptible smile, _'so this is what he meant by a better shield for her.' _He let his fist uncurl.

As much as Zero hated to admit it, Kaname was right. Seiren was probably better than he was in terms of guarding someone – heck, she had done pretty well making sure Kaname's brains still rested in his head after Zero had pulled his gun. To be honest with himself, Zero hadn't seen Seiren move until he felt her hand at his neck, he just didn't want to admit it.

By the time he finally started listening to Kaname's and the Chairman's conversation, the Chairman was shaking his head. "I cannot allow it Kaname. As much as I would love to integrate the two classes, I cannot risk the Night Class' secret being revealed – even if it is to protect Yuki." He closed his eyes and sighed, "As much as I respect your opinion on whether or not she would be tempted to drink any of her classmates' blood, I cannot take that chance."

"But haven't you already done so sir?"

Three heads looked at Zero in confusion, "don't you allow me to be in the Day Class even though I myself am a vampire?" Although on the outside Zero's face was the epitome of stoic, on the inside he was hyperventilating. He had just done the one thing he promised himself he would never do: he had openly called himself a vampire. In front of a person the thought was insane, another who he despised, and another who had on idea about his secret no less.

He felt Seiren's shock even though he couldn't see her face.

The Chairman was doing his best imitation of a goldfish and Kaname had a look that Zero could scarcely believe: gratitude.

"Um – well – yes – but you see Zero, you have your seal, so even if you do something, I could rein you in…"

Zero looked over to Kaname, "you say she won't touch anyone in that class?"

Kaname nodded, "not unless they mean harm to Yuki, then and only then will she intervene."

"Are you sure?"

Kaname had all but forgotten that the Chairman – the one with the power to actually mover her to the Day Class – was even in the room. His attention was focused solely on the hunter slightly to his right, "you have my word as a Kuran."

Zero nodded and looked to the Chairman, "works for me. You?"

The Chairman was now doing his best rendition of an owl as he blinked several times, "Um – sure?"

Both Kaname and Zero nodded.

"Now how about we go greet Yuki as she wakes up?"

Zero simply nodded and followed Kaname into the infirmary through the door held open by the newest Day Class member, the Chairman followed behind them, still speechless and gaping.

A thoroughly shocked Seiren closed the door behind her.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Throughout the years, numerous alliances had been forged, broken and strengthened behind closed doors. This one proved to be no different. The two figures – one a man, the other a woman – sat facing each other across a mahogany desk. The woman leaning back in her chair with a champagne glass in her hand, he sitting stiffly in his seat. He reached out and picked up the manila folder from the woman's desk.

"Are you sure these observations are correct?"

"They come from one of my most trusted operatives who just reported back in after extended time in the field. The information is accurate."

The man glanced back down at the file, "this place is a fortress. We need to lure _him_ out and make this easier on us."

She took a sip from her glass, "agreed."

The man closed the file and stood up to leave, "I need to show this to the others, they will want to have a say as to how this goes."

The woman leaned forward, setting her glass on her desk, "surely you have time for a little banter before we adjourn?"

The coy smile that graced her red lips was not reciprocated by the man before her, "I am not her to 'banter', I am here to retrieve the valuable information you had acquired and return to the others so we may discus what action we wish to take next."

Her smile turned into a pout, "you big _old_ meanie."

His gaze grew even colder, "_and_ Madame, I am loath to stay here another minute – this place is not so kind to one such as myself."

The woman's face twisted into a cruel smile, "but soon it shall."

The man nodded, "indeed it shall. Now, if you do excuse me, I have another meeting to attend."

She merely nodded as her companion melting into the shadows of her office.

She leaned back and sipped the rest of her champagne slowly, _'soon we will be the most powerful forces in the world. And nothing is going to stop us this time.'_

The only problem was, she didn't know about the several trump cards that had yet to be put into play…

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

* * *

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. -- Graycie Harmon

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the wait but this chapter sets up several things and I wanted it to be up to my own screwed up standards before I posted it. And I am not trying to make each chapter longer than the last - it's just turning out that way. Tell if you like it that way or not and if there are any mistakes in this. Anyways, lots of stuff happening this chapter huh? What is the item that Seiren retrieved for Kaname? What did Yori get from the Chairman? What is with his necklace? Why doesn't Kaname think that Shizuka is dead (there was a huge fireball – no one could have survived _that_…right?) Why did Zero help Kaname? What was that last part about? And finally, what is up with Yuki? All will be revealed in time good readers, I promise! TTFN

You're getting closer…

…closer…

…you're almost there…

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	7. Chapter 7

Two Faces

**Two Faces**

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

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A/N: Um…hehehe…sorry for the wait. I was a little preoccupied with working at my old high school. My little brother is a freshman there and in marching band, and when my old director discovered that my internship hours were negotiable, he asked if I could work with the brass section for part the summer. I naively said yes. Then there was the whole moving back to college to complete my MBA…anyway, I'm now back and the updates will hopefully settle into a comfortable routine. I can't promise anything, but you should be able to read a new chapter every two/three weeks or so. No promises though – I do have a life. And now without further prattle of the author, I give you the seventh chapter of the humble fanfiction, _Two Faces…_

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

'**Inner thoughts' **

"**Inner speech"**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Her head was pounding. It was like being underwater and having someone beat a bass drum right above the surface – you heard the sound – but it was distorted and took a little while before you eventually heard it. But every time the beat came – and it came in a steady rhythm – her head felt like it was being split open. And it wasn't just her head that was causing her discomfort: every part of her body felt as if it was being crushed in a vice. But while she was uncomfortable and her limbs felt like lead, she felt…calm?

Granted, she had no idea where she was, why she felt this way – she had a suspicion though, maybe – and why she wasn't scared, but for some odd reason, her current situation didn't cause her any undue distress. And while her entire body seemed distant and her sense of self felt fuzzy, her mind seemed surrounded in peace and serenity. While she knew not to be afraid, she didn't know _why_ she shouldn't be…

'_I-I know this…right? This is supposed to happen, this is OK?'_

She continued to rack her brain for any reason for the odd sensations that seemed to have rendered her immobile.

She came up empty.

The vice like pressure that surrounded her shifted slightly and seemed to mainly focus on her torso and head and left the rest of her body feeling like it was underwater – able to move slowly and stiffly, but still able to move. Her body didn't feel as warm as she remembered…

'_There was a fire right? Or…was I waiting somewhere?'_

Again her memory failed her. She knew that she had been warm and safe not too long ago, but now it seemed like her skin was cold and…smooth…It was the only word that came to her mind. She couldn't move her arm to check if her skin was chilly because of the pressure, but somehow she seemed to know something was wrong – _'No, not wrong. Simply changing.' –_ once again it seemed like her mind was trying to help her, only to confuse her even more.

The pounding started to increase its pace, and her head felt like it would burst at any moment, but somehow it held together and the pressure slowly drifted down to her chest. And it was in that instant that she knew what pain was – but her scream never made it past her lips. It was if someone had taken a scalpel of ice and was doing open heart surgery on her while she was awake. The pain seemed to be worming its way closer to her heart and she was getting colder with each passing moment, the cold spreading out from her center and seeping into every fiber of her being.

Her fingers would have been curling into fists trying to distract her from the pain, and her jaw would have been clenched, but it seemed that moving was something to be denied her again. She remained motionless as the pain slowly subsided, and her ragged breathing gradually returned to normal. She tried to open her eyes and found the task impossible. It seemed her body had decided to rebel against her every wish, and was in no hurry to hand control back to her.

She focused and strained, trying desperately to open her eyes and regain her bearings, but it was no use, it only made the pounding in her head worse, and she was still blind.

'_It's supposed to be like this?'_ she tried to reason with herself, _'_What_ is supposed to happen?'_

She somehow knew that she had agreed to this – and somehow at the same time done this to herself – but this was too much. Her entire body was in pain, her head was throbbing and her skin felt like it had turned to glass, and for some reason her mind was not allowing her to know why, only that it was the _right_ thing to do. And that one recurring thought – while not alleviating _all_ of her concerns – did make things _slightly_ less nerve-racking.

And it was in that moment, when she had finally steeled herself to the pain and convinced herself that this was as bad as things could get, her still closed eyes screamed in pain. It was if a colony of fire ants had declared war on her eye sockets, and her arms merely twitched at her command to come to her eyes' aid. She could hear the pounding escalate and the pain it shot into her head with every beat was so debilitating, that for a split second took her mind away from the burning in her eyes…but _only_ for a second.

She was silently screaming at her arms to move, to do anything other than lie uselessly at her side, and it seemed as if – for the first time since this ordeal started – that her body decided to listen. Slowly and painfully, inch by inch, her arms rose. The glassy smooth surface that she knew her skin had become cracking at her joints and the glassy coating falling from her skin. The warm air around her felt good on her still frigid skin, her hands scraping off the cold coating on her face and allowing her eyes to crack open slightly.

Her hands roamed all over her body trying desperately to scrape the cold…whatever it was…off her and warm herself up. And for the first time since her painful ordeal began, she was allowed to grit her teeth in pain and sit up. Her limbs barely responded and her entire body moved as if it was in water. Every movement, even one as mundane as breathing, was a labor and caused her severe pain.

But while she found her body's slow painful response time annoying, she found her lack of vision slightly more so. It wasn't as if she _couldn't_ open her eyes, it was just that every time she did, she found herself crying in pain and closing them as fast as possible. She clamped her right hand over her closed eyes to block out any light, but even squinting in the darkness provided by her palm, her eyes caused her severe pain.

"**Sorry Yuki. But this is the only way I know how to do this."**

Yuki's brow furrowed as she looked around…wherever she was…trying to find the source of the voice. One that felt familiar, but at the same time one that caused her slight unease. She took her hand away from her face and groped around like a blind man, "Who's there?"

"**You."**

Yuki stilled instantly, "W-what?"

"**I think it's time for us to wake up. I'll **_**try**_** and suppress most of the changes; we wouldn't want our little secret out of the bag quite yet would we?"**

As soon as the disembodied voice finished speaking, Yuki felt the ground – or what she presumed was ground – fall out from beneath her and a crushing pressure constrict her body. Then she started to fall; she heard the wind rushing past her and ripping through her hair, she desperately threw her arms out to try and slow her descent. She felt the dress she was wearing get slightly tighter and stick closely to her skin from her sweat, and she felt something else: relief. The pain and the pounding and the cold icy feelings she had previously experienced were suddenly gone.

She hurriedly opened her eyes just in time to find herself shooting out of a black tunnel and found herself staring at a bright florescent light and several blurry objects…

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

After several extensive hours of searching, after exhausting every power and sense they had, after looking through the night and the previous day in shifts as to not fall asleep on their feet, the Night Class of Cross Academy had found _absolutely nothing_. Well, not exactly nothing, just nothing that would be mentioned – _ever_. The search for Shizuka Hio's body, her masked assistant or the girl Maria had yielded little results that the Night Class would care to remember.

But on the bright side – if one could call it that – they now had a detailed layout of the forest and all of its inhabitants. Where the burrow of _every single_ rabbit was dug, which trees had bee's nests in them – amongst other things, where the handful of deer sprinkled throughout the forest slept, and also where every single mud patch, sink hole, and poison ivy bed was hidden. All in all, just about every member of the Night Class was in need of a new uniform, a shower, a warm glass of blood and a good nights rest…pity things never worked out that way…

Once Ichijou had called a halt to the search and everyone had returned to the Moon Dorm, he quietly gathered the little group of Kaname's friends and waited until the last vampire left the entrance hall before speaking to the disheveled group, "So we have no _idea_ what happened or where anyone is – am I right?"

The tired nods and weary sighs were his only response.

Ichijou gave a small nod and grumbled to himself, "Great, why can't life be like a manga? Everything would be so much easier…"

Kain gave the pouting vice-president an exhausted grin, "Where would the fun be then?"

"_Fun_? You call _that _fun? Have you completely lost your mind Akatsuki?"

While she often did not show it, Ruka Souen did in fact have other emotions other than those of a cold and aloof aristocrat. One of the emotions she liked to share with her dorm mates was anger, which Kain was being treated to by the truckload.

"We just spent all night and most of this morning searching through that abysmal forest for a little idiotic girl, a masked man we know next to _nothing_ about, and possibly the most psychotic Pureblood in history! All of our dress clothes are ruined, there is a _humongous_ hole not one hundred yards from where we stand, Kaname and Seiren have both been absent for hours, an-" She suddenly stopped, her face contorted into a picture of pure loathing: thin curled lips, narrowed heated eyes staring off into the distance and fists clenched so hard that her fellow vampires could smell the blood just starting to seep from the shallow puncture marks.

Her next words came out as a hiss, "and the way Kaname went out of his way to help that Prefect. Her stupidity could have injured him; he didn't know what was in that hole before he jumped in. Only that _she_ was in it."

Kain's bewildered gaze morphed into one of resigned understanding. _'So that what this tirade is really about…' _Softly he asked, "You were worried about Kaname's safety?"

Ruka, suddenly aware that the eyes of all her friend's eyes were on her, had the grace to act a little sheepish, "O-of course! Why w-wouldn't I be? He's our leader isn't he?"

Her eyes darted from face to face looking for anyone to corroborate her statement. Unfortunately for her it was Aido Hanabusa that came to her aid.

"She has a point," he said, lazily swinging his head to look at his taller cousin, "can you imagine what it would be like with Ichijou in charge of the Dorm?"

The indignant snort that the vice-president of the Moon Dorm gave to Aido's comment was drowned under the shudders of his dorm mates. "What is that supposed to mean? I would do a great job! My first order of business would be to make this place more colorful and happy! You people just don't seem to care about the little things…"

Shiki's raised eyebrow pretty much summed up everyone's reaction…except Aido's – he just burst out laughing. Clearly the stress and lack of sleep had gotten to him…

Ichijou cleared his throat several times hoping to gain the laughing aristocrat's attention but eventually gave up. Heaving a tired sigh and glancing at the others he nodded. "Lets get to bed. We need it; not even Kaname could fault us for not finding anything after _that_ kind of a blast."

The assembled vampires nodded and staggered off towards their respective rooms upstairs looking hopefully towards warm beds and uninterrupted sleep.

Casting one last bemused glance at the still laughing Aido, Ichijou ascended the stairs to his room. He locked the oaken door behind him and walked past his bed towards his private phone resting on a table near the window. He punched in the number and waited several seconds before he heard an irritated voice, "It's a little early to be calling Ichijou…"

The vice-president forced his voice to remain steady as he answered the unasked question, "Something's happened."

Ichijou could almost see the smirk appear on the other end of the phone, "Do go on…"

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

"…thank you. Keep me posted… Yes, I may make another appearance, especially after such _– unpleasant – _circumstances…Yes, until then." The man placed the phone back in its cradle and looked down the table at the other members of the oldest governing body in existence. He flashed them a triumphant smile – more predatory than anything – but a smile nun the less. And Asato Ichijou was not know for smiling – even on the happiest of occasions. The smile had the intended affect on the group assembled: they were intrigued – and more than a little concerned for their lives.

He chuckled softly to himself, _'fools, every one of them. They don't do a damned thing, and they somehow believe that they are entitled to know information that they should not. Fools.'_ Keeping his thoughts to himself, he rose from his seat and took on his normal air of superiority.

"My fellow Senate members, new information has just come to my attention just moments ago." He paused to allow the assembled members in front of him to mull over the possibilities that "new information" could entail. Most in the Senate did not talk very much, at most a yea or neigh when a vote was called, but otherwise most preferred to remain silent. But that fell more in line with Asato's plans anyway; he wanted them listening to him. He knew that most did not have anywhere near the amount of connections he did – running one of the most prosperous company in the world had its perks – and he simply carved his niche as the information gatherer of the Senate; feeding them whatever news he wanted them to know while keeping them mostly in the dark, that was the way he preferred things.

He cleared his throat, "Apparently Shizuka Hio has been masquerading as a student at Cross Academy these last few days." He swallowed his smile at the panicky faces his news created, he knew precisely what they were thinking, _'now there are two powerful Purebloods together inside Cross's fortress of a school.'_ He continued, "As I have made aware to you all, that monstrosity that Cross calls a school is closer to a prison than anything the Hunter Association currently has in its possession."

He allowed his words to sink in a little before pressing on, "Now it appears he another Pureblood under his 'care'." He shook his head slowly and frowned, "I still do not understand what it is he has that keeps the Last Kuran there within his power, but now it is safe to assume he has another Pureblood under his control." He sighed and hung his head to hide his smile while the other members talked amongst themselves.

"Or at least until last night. It appears that Shizuka Hio took her own life rather than submit to that man and his twisted plans."

He slowly lowered himself into his chair and lifted his gaze to look at the others. They were frantically whispering to each other trying to figure out how a simple human could have such power, and why the "Madly Blooming Princess" would prefer death than to be under his "care". Asato almost laughed to himself, _'they really don't know anything do they? Do they really think that Cross could hold _two_ Purebloods against their will even if he wanted to? No one has _that_ much power…but as long as these idiots think he does, I can act as the caring and concerned former guardian and try and "release" Kaname from his "prison". And getting my gullible grandson to act as my inside man was the pièce de résistance.'_

One of the younger more impetuous Senators stood up near the other end of the table, "We must act! One of the most famous and powerful Purebloods is now dead and the other is being held captive by that man! We must rescue Lord Kaname and his classmates immediately! Before another catastrophe occurs! " Several other voices were raised in agreement, but were silenced when Asato stood back up.

"While I agree that we cannot leave the future of our race in the hands of this madman, we cannot possibly force him to give up his prisoners." He looked forlornly at the manila folder sitting innocently on the table, "That place is a fortress. Not even the Hunters who built it know all of its secrets anymore – but they know enough. I know that we all don't want this, but I will again put this to a vote…Do we ally ourselves with the Hunters in order to rescue our Lord?"

He waited for their reaction, and hoped that it was what he had planed for. He had long pitched this idea to the Senate, he was – of course – one of the many who wanted to live in peace, but this time his idea made perfect sense. Combine the Hunters and the Senate and "liberate" the Night Class from the hands of that "madman." It was all too easy…

"What do you all say?"

A deafening roar filled the room, "Yea!"

Asato nodded, "The yeas have it."

The proposition passed 29-0 with every Lord and Lady voting for it. The Senate would work with its longtime enemy – the Hunter Association – in order to liberate their Lord.

Asato allowed a smile to grace his thin pale lips, _'All according to plan.' _

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

There was something about the hospital wing that got to Seiren; whether it was the sterile smell of antiseptic, the typically gloomy attitudes of the patients, the plane white décor or the company she was subjected to she couldn't be sure…but she was willing to put everything she owned on the later explanation. She was at ease with Kaname, she had been by his side for close to five years now, she had no problems with either the Chairman or Ms. Aono having never really interacted with either of them, so that pretty much meant that it was a combination of the formerly human vampire hunter to her left and the still young woman in front of her.

Seiren wasn't sure why, but the girl was making her feel uneasy. While the smaller guardian did not actually have any power, she _did_ have Kaname's attention and affections, and if Seiren screwed up in any way and the girl was harmed, then Kaname would have her head. She was starting to reconsider accepting her new position as Yuki Cross's bodyguard, and she hadn't even spoken to the girl yet.

But, she had given Kaname her word to protect the girl. So she would. Simple as that; if she "accidentally" killed Zero in the process, well, those things happened from time to time…

The Chairman walked up to his adoptive daughter and brushed some hair out of her face while Kaname and Zero both took seats on the other side of Yuki's bed. Seiren remained standing against the opposite wall and allowed Ms. Aono to check the machines hooked up to Yuki. The nurse talked absentmindedly to them as she worked, "According to the scans she should be waking up in the next few moments, and I figured that you would want to be here when she did." She adjusted a few things and then switched another machine off entirely, "And before you ask no, I still have no idea why she was like this to begin with. The brain scans only revealed significant brain function in all areas, watching her brain work was like seeing a fireworks show."

The Chairman's head whipped up at the last comment, "but there is no lasting damage right?" She shook her head, "Nothing that I can tell, but the human brain is still a mystery that refuses to be solved," she shrugged while pulling the IV out of Yuki's arm, "but I don't think that anything major happened to her. It's most likely she went into a coma after witnessing whatever it was she saw…"

When she trailed off and continued unhooking wires from the still sleeping girl, Kaname looked over to the still hunched over Chairman. "She won't be performing her Prefect duties for a while I presume?"

The Chairman didn't tear his gaze away from his adoptive daughter, "No, she will get a few days to recover, then she can go back to work with Zero when she feels up to it." Kaname gave a snort, "You and I both know that she will want to go back to her duties as soon as she wakes up. She doesn't like people worrying about things on account of her…" _'So much like her mother.' _"In any case, I will instruct the Night Class to be on their best behavior for a while so she can recover in peace."

Seiren quirked an eyebrow and spoke for the first time since the water fountain, "Do you honestly expect Aido to actually do that?" As soon as she spoke, she wished she hadn't, for immediately as the words left her mouth every conscious person in the room looked at her. She hated being the center of attention. She preferred to be the background, watchful and unnoticed. Her actions at the Ball not withstanding…

Kaname gave her a knowing smile, "I expect Aido to do what I personally tell him to do. Otherwise," his smile grew predatory, "otherwise he will have to deal with me." He returned his gaze to the still sleeping Prefect; the others mirrored his actions and turned their eyes away from the stoic vampire bodyguard. All save one.

Zero still couldn't figure her out. When the two of them had exchanged jabs at the ball she hadn't been her normal cold, reserved self. But now seeing how she hardly ever spoke up and slipped into the static of the environment he remembered the first time the two had really "met". She had her nails to his throat, and he had his Bloody Rose to Kaname's head. He hadn't noticed her until it was too late, and he reminded himself to be more vigilant of his surroundings in the future…he didn't want to die _quite_ yet. _'But she is the best person to keep Yuki safe.'_

Zero swiveled his head over to Ms. Aono, "I thought that she was supposed to be awake by now?" The quiet noises that came from Kaname's and the Chairman's throats made plain their growing impatience as well. Ms. Aono though merely smiled, "Well, if you really want to wake up the Sleeping Beauty, then why don't one of you just kiss her?" The twin death glares she received made her smile even more, but it also got the two vampires to sit quietly for a while. The chuckles from the Chairman and Ms. Aono were the only thing to break the silence as they waited for Yuki to regain consciousness…

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

He had been sitting at the bar for over three hours. Three bottles of various alcoholic beverages discarded to his right. Next to those was a half filled glass being held by a woman with white, cold hands. Her head was resting on her forearm and her black hair was splayed across the top of the shiny mahogany bar. Her blood had soaked her clothes and had caused them to stick to her body as if by glue. Even so, there still was a large pool of blood below her stool. The only other outward sign that she had suffered any accident were the two holes in her neck from which the blood had seeped out.

She was one of the lucky ones. Most were missing various limbs and the interior of the bar looked as if someone had liberally taken a crimson paint bucket to the walls. The smell of the newly dead and their blood was not pleasant, but the man had long ago learned to deal with the scent.

He took another sip of his drink.

He had arrived a little over an hour ago, having been alerted by the screams of those inside – the police had called the Association, and they in turn called him, the screams told him where he was needed, simple little cycle. The growing crowd of concerned citizens outside had been too spineless to interrupt what they knew was going on in the bar. It was amazing how frightened people got when faced with things that resided only in their nightmares…

'_I wish…'_

He turned his head slightly to his left and his dark eyes looked at the large pile of dust in the bloodiest corner of the bar. _'How did _three_ level-E vampires get this far into a city before they were spotted? It makes no sense – but I suppose this is the way of the world today: vampires simply doing as they wish without regard for their actions.'_ A small bemused smile crossed his face, _'Well, maybe not all…'_

He went back to his drink. He was content to sit there for another few hours – or until the police outside marshaled enough courage to join him inside the bar. He let out a snort, _'The fools say that _they_ serve and protect, but all they really do is call in the cavalry when things get out of hand,' _he rolled his head as he again looked at his surroundings, _'usually too late.' _

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep_

"Aw hell…" He relinquished his hold on his drink and fished through his numerous pockets until he found a small black cell phone. He flipped it open and brought it to his ear just in time to hear a woman's sickly sweet voice on the other end.

"Is this Yogi?"

"…………Have I mentioned that I hate you recently?"

His caller sounded amused, "No, but I do have a new job for you…do you remember where you were a few weeks ago?" She didn't wait for a reply, "Go back and find a reason to hang around. That's it, until I call again, stay put and don't give the idiot a reason to throw you out. Good luck, you're going to need it on this one."

The sound of the dial tone filled his ear and he quickly pocketed the phone. He let out a long, tired sigh and quickly downed the rest of his bottle before picking up his rifle and heading for the door, not caring if he stepped in blood or not – his shoes had seen their share of it over the years anyway. He opened the door and stood on the steps that lead to the bar, carefully observing the people before him. The crowd had swelled to double the size he remembered despite the drizzle coming down – _'I know I didn't drink _that_ much…' – _and the cops were still milling about, taking notes from people about what had happened; they all poignantly ignored him, perhaps the thought of seeing him only cemented the fact that what had happened in the bar was real and not a nightmare.

He pulled a cigarette out of his breast pocket and lit it before strolling of into the dimly lit back alleys of the city. His cowboy hat kept most of the rain off.

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

As soon as the sound from Ichijou's lock faded into silence, Aido Hanabusa stopped his cackling and stood up straight. With a sigh, he absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair, _'This makes no sense. Why can't we find them? At the very least we could have been able to smell burning flesh…but the only thing that was on the breeze was smoke…how is that possible?' _Aido shook his head as if to get rid of some annoying flies and then with the utmost care to silence, made his way towards the entranceway, and quietly let himself out into the night.

He quickly crossed the open ground to the wall that separated the Moon Dorm from the rest of the campus and jumped. Now, at best, a person would only be able to jump several feet off the ground. If they trained themselves they might hope to add a few inches to that height; Aido's jump would have put him over an Olympic class pole vault with inches to spare. He stretched both his hands out and grasped the top of the wall, and using his feet he pushed off from the wall, flipping over the top and landing in a crouch on the ground below. He showed no outward signs of any exertion. Being a vampire had its uses.

He wove through the trees and underbrush that formed the forest which coverall almost all of Cross Academy's grounds as he made his way to the old dormitory – or at least where it _had _been. Now it was just a big charred crater with burnt wood strewn all around it. He ducked under the yellow DO NOT CROSS ribbon and made his way right up to the lip of the crater with his hands in his pockets. He swiveled his head back and forth, taking in the entire scene, his eyes not minding the lack of light in the least.

After several moments he shook his head, _'This still makes no sense. An explosion of this magnitude would have incinerated everything around it.'_ He glanced over to the ashen trees closest to where the building had once stood, _'Those shouldn't even be standing. Hell, most of this forest should have gone up in flames; not even Kain and my combined efforts should have been able to contain all of it like we did.'_ He creased his brow, _'It was as if something protected the forest and forced the flames to go up and not out…'_

He walked over to the nearest tree – what he guessed to be an old oak tree, easily several hundred years old if he were to judge by its size – that was now in danger of crumbling into dust. Using his nails he peeled a portion of the burnt bark from the tree and his eyes narrowed at what was behind it. _'How it _this _even possible?'_ The tree was still alive. He could see that the healthy wood still had water in it, and the green healthy young bark was still there. If given the right amount of time and attention, the tree would be able to make a full recovery.

'_This simply isn't possible. The heat from the blast should have caused all the water in this tree to evaporate at once. This old oak should be thousands of toothpicks, but all that happened to it was that it got a little singed.' _He moved on, checking several other trees in the grove and finding the same thing at each. _'What – or who – had the power to keep these trees alive_ _while a fire burned all around them?' _He ran down a mental checklist of all the Night Class members' powers, but no one came to mind – if he was honest with himself, he couldn't remember _any_ vampire having an affinity with plants and nature, _ever_. Most were simply able to channel some element or had their own unique abilities.

He had to stop himself from smiling when he thought about the _other_ occupants of the departed dorm. One was a crazy Pureblood who wouldn't care about the surrounding area anyway; one was a young aristocrat who was probably didn't have a clue what her body was being used for; another was a simple human girl who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. That left only one person: Shizuka's masked servant.

Aido's eyes narrowed and he spoke out loud for the first time in several minutes, "It has got to be him. Anyone else makes no sense at all." He nodded to himself several times and turned back towards the Moon Dorm only to find that he was not alone in the blackened clearing.

The nearly full moon in the sky transformed the stationary figure into a haunting beauty that Ruka would have a hard time competing with on her best day. The moon's light turned the figure's hair from sandy blond to silver. Her green eyes gained an odd glint to it, turning it into a light jade color and making them dance with both laughter and just a touch of insanity. Her head was cocked to the side and her pale pink lips were stretched into a smile that was equal parts amusement, pity and sarcastic.

Aido's face paled. He _knew_ that face; he had been talking to it only – _'what? Twenty hours ago? It feels longer than that.' _It was a face that he wasn't in any hurry to see again. His anger had subsided and was instead replaced with fatigue; he doubted that he could do anything to her now…

At Aido's fallen face, the figure's smile stretched even more. It absentmindedly fiddled with its pristine white Guardians tag as it walked closer to him. The hauntingly beautiful girl stopped inches from him, "And just what are we doing out of our dorm this evening, hmmm? Nothing _bad_ I hope? I would _so_ hate to have to bring you towards the Chairman on my first day as a Guardian."

'_Oh how in the name of God did_ she_ become a guardian? Is there no justice in this world?!'_

"I think I _might_ just have a way for you to get out of this situation though – that is – if you're willing."

Aido dully nodded, and as he heard the girl's proposition, his face became a shade of white never before seen by man or vampire.

'_She wants me to WHAT?!'_

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

Zero's patience had snapped some time ago. The only sound in the room was Yuki's heart rate monitor and everyone's breathing; hardly a good combination for passing long hours waiting – apparently, "any moment now" meant any time that _day_. So he occupied his time by counting the ceiling tiles – 937 and ½ to be exact – and was currently trying to recite the first act of Shakespeare's _King Lear _from memory. It was proving to be quite troublesome seeing as he had barely read it when it was assigned – but it did keep him busy. The Pureblood sitting to his left had simply leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, content to wait as long as needs be. The Chairman and Ms. Aono had been engrossed in the latest manga for nearly half the day and now they had finally turned their attentions to the previous releases.

And then there was Seiren.

She had been leaning against the wall since they had entered the room hours ago. Now the sun was gone, replaced by a shining moon, and she hadn't moved a muscle the whole time. An impressive feat by anyone's standards. She had been staring intently at Yuki's unconscious form the entire time, her eyes tracing her face, memorizing its every detail. Seiren's cool gaze would have normally put him on edge, but the deadly gleam she normally had in her eye was not present as she gazed upon his fellow Guardian. _'She's thinking about how to protect her.' _

It was really a simple deduction, one any of the Night Class could have made instantly. But for anyone who didn't know Seiren's personality, her all consuming look could have been construed as predatory. But her gaze had only rested on Yuki's neck for a brief moment, but still Zero had tensed slightly. _'I wonder what she's thinking about now. How to make Yuki stay out of trouble?'_ Zero snorted out loud at _that_ thought, _'both the Chairman and I have failed miserably at that venture.' _

Zero had no way of knowing of course, but Seiren's mind was running close to what he had been imagining…for the most part.

She had long ago mastered her face's muscles and by doing so was able to keep her confusion and concern from showing. _'What is keeping her like this? I know the doctor said she would awaken soon, but I didn't think her definition of soon was _hours _long.' _She noted the miniscule tightening of Yuki's mouth; an almost imperceptible movement. One most wouldn't have even noticed, but then again, Seiren wasn't anyone.

'_There's something else going on with this girl…' _Again, the unconscious Guardian's left hand clenched for but the briefest second, and then relaxed. Her heart rate started to speed up slightly. Seiren allowed a small crease to form on her brow, _'something is happening, and by the looks of things, it isn't all that fun.' _She closed her eyes and allowed them some relaxation after such intense observation and leaned back against the wall and thought about her new objective.

'_How am I going to do this? This girl has a habit of getting into trouble, and if I am to keep her safe, I should be at her side at all times.'_ She mentally sighed,_ 'my school work is about to take a serious nose dive isn't it?' _She opened her eyes and let her gaze sweep over the room and back to her new charge. She registered Zero's stare, but did not look at him, deciding that the vampire hunter/ ex-human was not really her concern.

After all, Zero didn't seem like he was going to go crazy and try and kill them all at the present time…if he did she would _unfortunately _have to step in. It was in the middle of that thought that her keen hearing picked up the tell-tale signs of a heart speeding up…

_Thump…_

Seiren's eyes immediately narrowed at the prone form of the sleeping Guardian…

_Thump…Thump…_

Kaname's eyes cracked open and focused on Yuki's still sleeping form…

_Thump…Thump…ThumpThumpThump…_

Zero stood up from his chair and moved fractionally towards the bed as Yuki's heart rate started to speed up…

_ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThump…_

Ms. Aono and the Chairman let their manga fall to the floor in their haste as Yuki's monitor started to pick up speed …

_ThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThumpThump…_

Kaname looked at Ms. Aono with eyes of barely contained worry and anger, "What is happening to her?"

The nurse smiled, "It seems like that kiss won't be necessary boys, your princess seems to be tired of resting at the present time."

Not rising to the bait, Kaname, Zero and the rest of the little group gathered around the small bed and held their breath as they waited for the small Guardian's eyes to open. The heart rate monitor above Yuki's bed started to pick up even more speed until an almost continuous tone filled the room. It didn't take a doctor to realize that no _normal_ person's heart should have _ever_ been beating that fast.

'_What did you _do_ to her Shizuka?'_

'_Something tells me that _this_ might not go over well with Kaname…'_

'_I wonder if it's possible for that machine to break from too much stress?'_

'_Yuki, please be all right, there is so much you need to learn.'_

'_Well, one thing is for certain, my time protecting this girl will be interesting to say the least.'_

And then when all assembled thought that they could stand no more of the ever escalating noise, Yuki's body sprung up from her bed as if she had been shocked. Her arms thrashed about her and her kicking feet had sent her bed sheets flying in several directions. Her soft doe brown eyes wide and fearful, standing out from the pale alabaster skin around it. Her matted hair sticking to her head in some places and puffing out in others, giving the misconception that she had just awoken from a long peaceful nap…

Her breaths came in short fearful gasps, her lower jaw trembling and her head snapping in every direction desperately trying to regain her bearings. Her hands had dropped to her lap once she realized she was in no danger of falling and had subconsciously clenched around the only remaining sheet on her bed. Her knuckles were as white as freshly fallen snow.

Yuki closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing while those around her leaned in to check on her. Her whole body shook for some unknown reason, she knew that she _should _know what was going on, but the only thing she could remember was feeling…safe, warm, protected… _'Where did that some from?' _It was as if she had strayed into a dream where even _she_ did not know what was happening. But one thought allowed her to calm herself slightly, _'I'm safe.'_

While Yuki composed herself, Ms. Aono hurriedly ushered the concerned Chairman, Zero and Kaname out the door, completely disregarding their objections and questions as she locked it behind them. She decided Seiren could stay, she was another girl, and frankly, if Seiren was going to be protecting Yuki from now on, they might as well start getting acquainted…

Ms. Aono grabbed her stethoscope off of her desk and briskly walked over to Yuki and began examining the Guardian. While she worked, she asked Yuki some basic questions about her ordeal, "So, Yuki, what happened?"

Yuki's head felt like it was cloudy, her thoughts were muddled and slow to come to her, and her mouth felt like cotton. "Wa-water!" she barely choked out before Ms. Aono looked down her throat. The nurse quickly glanced over to Seiren and gave the vampire a poignant look – _get the poor girl a glass of water – _and resumed her hasty examination of her benefactor's adopted daughter.

Seiren strode over to the stainless steel sink and filled a paper cup almost to its brim and proceeded to gave it to Yuki without spilling a drop. Yuki did – well actually she spilled most of it, but that could be forgiven due to her condition. The pale Guardian held the cup with both trembling hands and sucked in as much water in a single mouthful as was possible, but most of the cup's contents coursed down the outside of her throat and soaked the top of her rumpled clothes. She didn't seem to care.

When the last drop of water was gone, she let the paper cup fall onto her lap and shakily raised her left hand to massage her sore throat. Her right arm was presently being looked at by the nurse who's name Yuki for the life of her begin to think of…

Seiren had taken one of the seats next to Yuki's bed and again asked, "What happened between you and Shizuka Hio?" Yuki turned her head towards the emotionless vampire and blinked several times as she swayed back and forth where she sat, still disoriented and lethargic.

"Um –"

As she was about to explain the reasons for her actions, a nagging, irritated voice reverberated through her head, **"It would probably be a good idea not to tell them everything; Some, but certainly not all, don't you agree Yuki?"**

--I--

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

I I

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It's not plagiarism - I'm recycling words, as any good environmentally conscious writer would do. -- Uniek Swain

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First off, I'm SO sorry about the lack of updates these last few months, but know this: from now on the updates should be coming out every two/three weeks! Yay! Secondly, did you honestly think that I was going to write off such a great character as "inner-Yuki" in the same chapter I introduced her? No way, and I can't wait for her, um, "unique" views on the world. You all should get a kick out her antics later in the story. Anyway, some introductions, some political maneuvering, more than a few lies and the first real semblance of a plot is revealed! Rejoice my readers and review!

You're getting closer…

…closer…

…you're almost there…

There it is! The Review Button! Quick! Hit it!

This time it's cake and ice-cream!


	8. Chapter 8

**Two Faces**

**By:**

**Mparker2501**

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A/N: …Ummmm…Hi folks!… Is it enough to tell you I'm very, very, very, very sorry for the wait? Will that make it all better? ………Yeah, didn't think so. So instead of treating you all to a long story about how tedious and LONG dissertations can be, I figured you all would rather just have a chapter to read instead, so without any more of my prattle… I give you the seventh chapter of the humble fanfiction, _Two Faces…_

Disclaimer: An author is like a god in their universe, I'm just playing around with them for a little while.

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Reader's Key:

'_Thoughts'_

"Speech"

--o-o-oOo-o-o-- change in the same scene

'**Inner thoughts' **

"**Inner speech"**

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**Chapter Eight **

Yuki sighed for what she was sure the hundredth time that day. For the first time in her life, she was happy to be cooped up in her room away from everyone. She had been refreshed when she had originally woken up several hours before, but now she felt rather like she had run a marathon and triathlon consecutively. In other words, she was beat, bone tired, drained, weary, exhausted…and she hadn't done anything more exerting than talk for several hours. Well, not really _talk_ per se, but rather lie as well as she possibly could under the scrutiny of the Chairman, Zero, Kaname, the nurse Ms. Aono, and that strange Night Class girl that was always near Kaname…

Lying had never been her forte, but she felt confident that she hadn't said anything more than she needed to. Of course, she also had the always convenient excuse of "It all happened so fast, I couldn't figure out what was happening…" to fall back on…but the thing that occupied the young Guardian's mind wasn't the fact that she had lied to the some of people she cared the most about. No, what troubled her most was the _reason_ she had lied to them…that strange voice in the back of her mind…the same voice that had been distracting her ever since she had woken up several hours before. It had been fairly quiet through her "interrogation" session with her father and friends, offering only helpful bits that make Yuki's story slightly more believable. But ever since she closed her door behind her…well, it hadn't shut up – it was like being in cafeteria with hundreds of people yelling at the same time, but in this case it was only _one_ voice that kept yelling at her, albeit loud enough to make her ears ring…Yuki had been tuning it out while she changed into her night gown, hoping that a short nap would make her head hurt less.

She knew it was a long shot.

And to be honest, the voice was starting to sound quite miffed at being ignored…and it had no qualms about letting its feelings be known – loudly…

"**I am not an it! I am YOU! And the last time I checked, you were a GIRL!" **Yuki could almost hear the tantrum that accompanied the statement. She pictured some little shadowy person inside her head stomping its feat and waving its arms around…she almost smiled at the thought of someone living in her head…

"**I **_**do**_** live in your head! Why else do you think we are able to talk to each other?" **Yuki rolled her eyes and peeled back the blanket on her bed, then turned the lights off before slipping beneath her sheets. "Probably because I just went through a traumatic experience and you are a figment of my overactive imagination," she mumbled as she pulled her blanket up to her shin and rolled over to face the wall. "And I'm really tired…"

'_**Yes, **_**that's**_** it Cross… just go to sleep. This will be so much easier to explain face to face' **_

--o-o-oOo-o-o--

Yuki wasn't sure what the oddest aspect of her current situation was: was it the fact that she was lying on her back on some cold stone surface, looking off into a dark that surrounded everything around her except two large wooden doors, or if it was the incredibly odd sense of déjà vu that the whole situation was giving her. For the first time in her young life, she felt like she was truly losing her mind.

All in all, she decided she didn't like the feeling all that much.

She quickly pushed herself up from the cold stones beneath her and into a kneeling position and hugged her herself; her flimsy paper-thin night gown offering her no protection from the cold that seemed to seep from the floor into her bones. Casting her eyes around her she came to three conclusions: 1) she was more than likely dreaming, 2) her imagination was terrible – there was nothing but black in every direction save for the white stones beneath her that led to the two large doors just a few feet away – overall, not very good work by her subconscious, and 3) she had _definitely _been here before…

Pushing herself fully upright and turning to the doors, she noticed that there seemed to be light seeping out from the space between the bottom of the doors and the ground. _'Wonder what the crazy vampire wants now…' _She froze as soon as she finished her thought, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping a few centimeters – just enough for her strangled gasp to issue forth. And in a sudden flash of both insight and memory, she remembered where she was, and what was beyond the doors in front of her…

Yuki Kuran.

Her other self.

'_I'm starting to think that I've stumbled into one of the Chairman's mangas…' _

With a sigh of resignation, she pushed open the huge doors and stepped inside her other self's domicile. She had been expecting the room to be blinding, with the candles and fire burning brightly, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling aglow, however, she was disappointed to see that only the candles burned, the fire failing in the hearth. She cautiously approached the chairs that were facing the fireplace, the same place where – if her memory was to be believed – hours ago she had learned her seemingly forgotten past. And there, in the same spot as before, was her vampiric self.

Her eyes were closed, and the glow from the decaying fire added a healthy cast to her skin – a glow that Yuki knew the sun could never give to vampires. She wondered absently why that was. Her other self was breathing deeply, her head resting against the shoulder of her cushiony chair, apparently asleep. Yuki took the seat she had vacated earlier and waited for her host to wake up. A thought that brought a smile to her face: yes, this section of her mind did belong to her vampiric self, but it was still _her _mind, how could she be a guest in her own mind? And secondly, why did her alter-ego need to sleep at all?

As soon as Yuki had finished processing that last thought, the vampire sitting across from her started to giggle to herself, but otherwise gave no outward signs of waking up. Yuki raised an eyebrow, _'Please tell me she isn't dreaming…'_ The still giggling vampire's small chuckles morphed into an all out guffaw, which in turn caused Yuki's other eyebrow to rise to meet its counterpart. _'Yeah…this can't be good…' _At that, the vampire's eyes across from her sprung open and she nearly toppled out of her chair in a fit of giggles – which sounded oddly like a thousand little bells tinkling at once – that didn't subside for several minutes.

"Are you finished yet?" Yuki deadpanned.

After a moment, her other self nodded while trying to wipe away her tears with one hand, the other was busy trying to drag her back up into her vacated seat. Her giggles silenced, she turned her amethyst eyes to her "guest", Yuki straightened slightly under her doppelganger's gaze and looked her in the eyes. "Is there a reason why you were laughing just now, or do you just bust out into bursts of giggles at random?"

Her paler self raised her eyebrows, **"No, no – it's just that your thoughts are **_**so**_** funny!"** At that, she burst out into another fit of giggles, leaving Yuki to hyperventilate over her answer. When it became apparent that Yuki was not about to breath normally by her own choice, her other self got up from her seat – while still giggling slightly to herself – and tried to calm her human self down, which involved poking Yuki in her sides until she snapped out of her panic attack.

"W-what does t-that mean?" Yuki gasped out, her right hand clutching her nightgown above her heart in hopes of slowing its rapid beating. She took a few steadying breaths before staring into her counterpart's dancing eyes, "Can you-"

"**-read your mind? Yes, I can, but I normally don't, it takes the fun out of everything – especially important conversations like the one I hoped we could have while your physical body rested." **She gave Yuki a small glare, but there was nothing behind it. She gave Yuki a small pat on the shoulder and then returned to her own seat. **"If it will make you feel any better, I will refrain from reading your mind while you are here. When you're awake it will be the only way for us to communicate without it looking like you're insane." **Yuki nodded absently, her mouth agape and her eyebrows raised so high, her bangs obscured them from view.

"Are you trying to tell me that we can talk to each other just by _thinking_?" Yuki said while trying to regain some of her composure, or at least make it appear she had eyebrows. Her doppelganger smiled, **"To an extent, yes. While you are awake, you need simply think it and I will hear your question. But to me it will be like talking to an empty room – something I have **_**quite**_** a bit of experience doing." **She sighed and began to smooth out the non-existent creases in her royal blue dress, seemingly content to let Yuki mull over the information she had just received.

"So – does that mean we can talk to each other whenever we want to?" Yuki said after a moment.

"**Yep."**

Yuki nodded to herself, thinking about the advantages this connection could provide her with – especially in her classes, she was sure that her more regal self probably knew how to do _some _forms of algebra...Her musings, however, were cut short when her other self leaned forward and placed her pale hand on Yuki's knee. **"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I'd like to talk to you about the reason I brought you here -"**

"Sorry to interrupt, but I thought that we were able to meet the last time only because Shizuka's bit let some of your power out. She's not here now, so how are we having this conversation?"

Yuki Kuran smiled and shook her head slightly, **"I always knew there was a brain between your ears Yuki!"** Yuki blushed slightly at the backhanded praise but continued to hold her counterpart's gaze, **"Do you remember last time when we met when you opened the doors to get in here, and I altered mother's seal?" **Yuki nodded, **"By doing those things, we created a connection that will only be severed when the merger is done…I think." **The vampire scratched the back of her head and chuckled nervously as her human self stared at her bug-eyed.

She sighed as Yuki tried to form a coherent thought, **"I did tell you that nothing like this had ever been done before remember?" **She sighed again and gave Yuki an apologetic look, **"I thought we would be merged together when the new seal was in place; needless to say, I was wrong." **She nodded in the door's direction and gave Yuki's leg a slight squeeze of reassurance, **"But that's not to say that this situation is bad either. This way we get to know each other before we both kind of cease to exist and all…" **By the look on Yuki's face, her reassurance didn't seem to help much.

The young vampire brought her outstretched hand back to her lap and looked at her pale bare feet and mentally chastised herself. _She_ had the time to contemplate her demise and assimilation into a new being, her counterpart had known about her past for all of a day – and now she was being told that the quick fix she had originally agreed to wasn't going to be so quick. In all reality, it could very well be several weeks before the two of them were fully one complete being. Of course, Yuki didn't need to know that, she had enough dropped onto her over the last day to be bothered with the knowledge that her world was about to get so much more complicated.

She closed her eyes and grimaced, _**'She doesn't deserve this! She shouldn't have to worry about any of this! She should have never had any contact with me and simply lived her life like a normal human…And I should have never put her in this situation to begin with. Now she gets to rethink this decision for however long the merger takes – she gets to realize what it is she agreed to, and what a stupid decision it was.' **_Her pale alabaster hands clenched in her lap and tears started to slip out from her closed eyelids and trickle down her cheeks. _**'I'm the one responsible for all this. If I hadn't been born than none of this would have ever transpired, and mother and father would still be alive. And more importantly, I would never have had to place Yuki in this position.' **_She sunk her fangs into her bottom lip to keep from sobbing, but she knew it wouldn't work for very long. It never had in the past.

"Why are you crying?"

Her eyes sprung open and her amethyst eyes peered at her blurry human self. Damn the tears. With a shaky voice she replied, **"Because we shouldn't be having this conversation; because you should have been free to live your life on your terms; because I should be in this room until your mortal life is over." **Yuki's confused face took on one of dawning understanding and she gave her crying self a small smile, "This isn't your fault." The vampire's head jerked back as if she had been slapped. _**'She doesn't hate me for this? Why?' **_Her eyes stung from her streaming tears and she busied herself by trying to brush them away – but she was beaten to it.

By Yuki.

Her human self was kneeling in front of her, her warm hands clutching her own pale ones. Yuki peered up into her amethyst eyes and smiled again, but it was tinged with just a bit of sadness. "Don't beat yourself up about this. If you want to blame anyone for this situation, blame Shizuka and Rido; they were the two who forced us into this corner." Yuki shook her head, her eyes starting to water just a bit, "If it makes you feel better, I don't see you as just another vampire, or an extension of myself. I see you as my sister," Yuki gave her a smirk, "albeit, one who lives in my head and probably smarter than most of the teachers in the school." Yuki giggled at her own remark as her paler half gave her an exasperated look, "_and_ happens to be a vampire who is somehow related to the 'god' of the vampire race." Yuki thought about it for a second and then nodded to herself, "That about sums it up," she gave her vampiric self an imploring look, "so _please_ stop crying?"

And for the first time since she had been relegated to her human half's mind, Yuki Kuran found herself wearing a genuine smile.

"**Ok," **she nodded and extracted her hands from Yuki's grip before wiping the last of her tears from her cheeks. Her shy smile grew more as Yuki's face split into a huge grin, "See? It isn't so bad is it? I know I might not be the smartest company in the world, but at least I'm someone to talk to, right?"

That got the vampire to chuckle for the second time that night, **"You really are more concerned about others than yourself aren't you?" **Yuki's grin quickly turned into a sheepish smile, "I just think that others need help more than I do. I have so much: a good life, friends, the Chairman and Zero. I just think that I should help others more than worry about myself, I have everything I could ever want." Her paler self shook her head, **"Mother and Father would be so proud of you."**

--I--

---o-o-oOo-o-o---

I I

He couldn't feel his left hand, he had several large gashes over his body, all of which were leaking blood faster than he would have liked to contemplate. He heard the sobs and screams from all the people beyond the destroyed train cabin he was sprawled out in, a small patch of dust several feet from him near the corpse of security guard that had tried to slow the monster while he had gotten his guns from the locked vault at the back of the train.

Trains…

He really hated trains. No – hate was probably too weak a word – loathed was more accurate. Was it the small enclosed space he was crammed into that irked him? No. Was it the ludicrous speed the trains maintained as they hurtled along their tracks just a handful of meters below the ground? No. Was it the extravagant food that those rich fools in first class ate that made those like him in coach salivate? Again, no. Those things grated on his nerves sure, but even when combined they did not make him as enraged as the imbecilic fools he was forced to ride in the company of.

Yes, the great Toga Yagari, scourge of vampires and one of the greatest hunters the Association had ever seen, hated people with a passion that was rivaled only by his contempt for his prey. But, having said that, he was not a man to simply sit back and watch them die if he could help it…

**(32 Minutes Ago)**

Ticket_s_, he _refused_ to sit next to anyone on the off chance that they were not scared shitless at the sight of him and _talk_ the entire trip, check.

Luggage, well, what _he_ considered luggage: the clothes on his back and his battered rucksack. Check.

His numerous weapons…yeah, he wished…

He had flashed his ID badge and his concealed weapons license to the man at the ticket counter, but he was informed that no one other than the _one _security guard on the train was allowed to carry any weapon of any sorts. No exceptions. So, after wading through the sea of people crowding the train platform and dutifully checking _every single_ _one_ of his weapons in with the train's "security guard" – in reality an overweight man in his mid-forties that didn't look like he was capable of stopping a three year old – and being promised by the now heavily sweating man that his newly tagged and documented "items" would be in the train's vault situated in the caboose for the duration of the three hour trip.

Finding his seats just inside the door and flopping into the window seat, he dropped his old faded brown bag onto the seat nearest the aisle, somewhat insulating him from the rest of the cabin. He leaned back in his seat and allowed his shoulder to brace against the pitiful excuse of a "window," he intended to be seeing the inside of his eyelids for the duration of the trip. He absentmindedly pulled out a pack of cigarettes and proceeded to light one up. He inhaled the acrid smoke, filling up as much of his lungs with the cancer causing smog as he could. Heaven…

"Ahem."

He lethargically turned his head to see one of the stewardesses, or whatever you called them on a train, glaring at him over his bag. She wasn't all that tall, maybe 5 foot with the black heels she as currently wearing, and was dressed in a light blue uniform that consisted of a too short skirt and a too tight top. Her hands were at her hips and her make-up caked face was pinched together in a sever scowl. Apparently she did not approve of his smoking, of course, the little signs that were all over the cabin walls said much the same. Not that he was inclined to follow those directions…

He gave her a bored look and rolled his eyes, _'Hehehe, if looks could kill…'_ He took one drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke at her, _'This should be a fun trip, hope she isn't the girl in charge of the drink cart, be a bad idea to piss her off if that was the case.' _He pulled the cig out of his mouth and crumpled it in his gloved had before depositing the half used remains in one of his pockets. The stewardess gave him a self-satisfied smirk and proceeded to ask the business man behind him if he would like anything to drink…

Toga rolled his eyes for the second time in less than a minute, _'Figures, I would have to piss of the drink cart lady.' _With a sigh he settled back into his barely padded chair and tilted his cowboy hat down over his eyes and tried to fall asleep, _'It's not as if I really have any money for a drink anyway…damn.'_

He barely registered the conductor speaking over the intercom system, and he imagined that the other stewardesses were instructing the other passengers on what to do if the train had a problem, _"Most likely panic and scream, that is what most people do in an emergency,'_ he thought with a morbid mental grin. It wasn't as if he hated people, he just disliked the stupid ones with a passion, which unfortunately applied to just about everyone he had ever met… and also included those he was forced to work with.

The jarring back and forth of the train pulling away from the station shook him out of his reverie. It was one of those things you'd think that mankind would have figured out how to fix after a couple hundred years: make the starting and stopping of the train just a _teensy_ bit smoother, but no, instead man decided to make the interior comfortable and the alcohol accessible. Not that he was complaining mind you…

With a long drawn-out sigh he settled back into his semi-comfortable position and waited for the trip to be over. He didn't sleep. Not because his body wasn't crying out for rest, which it was, but because he simply didn't want to leave his life in the hands of some pathetic, overweight excuse for a security guard. Nope. He'd rather stay awake and watchful under the brim of his hat and keep an eye on things.

And when what was to come was finished, he would be happy that he decided to remain awake.

The time seemed to flit by fairly quickly, which was a blessing he daren't hope for even on the good days, and everything seemed to be quiet… Well, there was one little thing that kept reoccurring about every two or three minutes: individual people or small little groups would parade by his seat toward the rear of the train and then would return blushing and giggling several moments later. Some were older, maybe mid-twenties, but the majority couldn't be over eighteen. And each and every one of them was carrying a magazine of some sort with a reverence he rarely saw even _within_ a church. Simply put, it was a creepy spectacle, but one he was intrigued by.

With another sigh, he hoisted himself up from his seat and switched seats with his faded brown traveling bag so that he was closest to the aisle. He rolled his eyes at what he was about to do, _'I can't believe that I'm about to snoop on a bunch of girls just to see what's _so_ special about a magazine cover.'_ He shook his head, _'At lease Zero isn't here to see this…' _Toga shifted his hat to cover his eye patch, a gesture he found the average person was thankful for: they weren't sure if it was alright to pity him or to shy away from him. For the record, he preferred the later action.

Peering out of his left eye he craned his neck to follow a woman in her mid-twenties march down the aisle towards the rear of the train, her chest pushed out and her head back. A normal male would have had his eyes glued to her face which was heart shaped and lovely, or perhaps her very well endowed chest, or maybe even her long shapely legs, but no, Toga Yagari's gaze was fixed on the magazine that the woman had clutched in her left hand. What he saw made his lone blue eye widen and then immediately narrow: the smiling face on the magazine's cover was deathly pale and had semi-long blond hair. His mouth was quirked in a small grin and his eyebrows were raised as if he found something amusing.

He was a vampire.

Toga growled under his breath, "Damn, this has _not_ been my week has it?" He shook his head, "Of all the trains in all the world, why did I end up on _this_ one?" His right arm came up and pushed his hat over both his eyes again as he tried to calm himself, _'Ok, even if he is a Level-E, there is no way he'd be stupid enough to try anything on a crowded train.' _He settled back into his aisle seat, _'I doubt he even knows I'm on this train anyway, hell, this line goes through several major areas so it's not all _that_ unreasonable for him to be going somewhere else alone the line.' _

But even as he tried to delude himself into believing that this was all one big coincidence, his gut – the one tool he _always_ relied on – was telling him something else entirely: it was no coincidence.

That was when the screams started from the rear of the train.

"What the hell?"

"Oh my God!"

"Nobody panic!"

"Tell them to stop the train!"

"Help us! Help us!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Three quick gunshots and then, mayhem. The train continued to speed on through the countryside towards the first stop, nearly an hour and a half away, all the while the people inside it went mad from fear. As soon as the screams had started and the first heads had whipped around to try and discern the source of the screaming, Toga was out of his seat and nearly through the rear door that connected to the other car. He was still three cars away from the caboose, where all of his weapons were… _'Shit! This cannot be happening!'_

In all his years with the Association, he had never heard of anything like this. It was _too_ stupid even for a Level-E to attempt: killing in broad daylight and in such a way that the world was sure to hear about it. _'Nothing is _this _stupid!' _he thought to himself as he pushed the rising passengers back into their seats, and those that were fully upright he practically threw out of his path, _'Why would any vampire do _this_? Is he suicidal?' _

He reached the final door separating the last car from the rest of the train – and luckily the rest of the passengers – put his hand to the latch and stopped. He desperately tried to such in as much air as his lungs could hold in an attempt to regain his breath after his mad dash through the gauntlet of people, but it seemed his years of smoking were not about to make things any easier. He continued to suck in air as he listened to the people screaming on the other side of the door – the people in the car he now stood in had dutifully ran away like cowards at the first sound of violence – the people who he knew he had almost zero chance of saving. They were begging and pleading for their lives, and those that weren't seemed to be alternating between screaming and crying.

He head butted the door and cursed, "Damn it!"

The noise from the other side of the door immediately stopped.

He barely had the time duck, with a muttered "Shit!" under his breath, before the metal door in front of him was torn off its hinges and hurled at his head. Falling to one knee and springing back only just saved his head again as a pale hand plowed through the floor of the car and into the undercarriage of the train. Yagari hurriedly stood up and quickly pried the headrest off of one of the chairs and threw it at the now motionless vampire standing in the wrecked doorway to the final compartment. The vampire didn't even try to dodge, instead he simply gave a hoarse laugh as he batted the missile away from himself, his mad shining red eyes never leaving Toga.

Then, with an eerie smile the vampire spoke, his voice a silky hiss, "Is that really the best you are able to come up with?" He cocked his ivory head to the side and treated Toga to a toothy smile, "The _Great _Toga Yagari!" he shook his head, "I'm not impressed."

'_Yeah, I didn't think this was just bad luck. This bastard _wanted _to be on this train with me.' _Toga quickly took in his now quiet surroundings. The vampire in front of him was completely slathered in human blood – it looked like he had been trying to imitate Jackson Pollock and failed, badly. Toga wasn't even able to discern what the original colors of his clothes were anymore, the now dark clothes just stuck to his body. His slicked back hair might have been called blonde at one point in time, but with the blood covering it, the hair looked more like a dark bronze. His hands were now stuffed in his blood soaked pockets and he was smirking lazily at Toga, completely uncaring of the carnage behind and around him.

Behind the vampire…Toga had to actually fight back a shudder – something he never thought he would ever do after working for the Association for as long as he had. The scene was hellish, to put it mildly: the entire passenger car was painted in blood. Headless torsos and crushed heads littered the floor and more than a few bodies appeared to be disemboweled – most likely while the poor soul had been alive. Toga counted only two survivors: the stupid rent-a-cop, and a petite raven haired girl what appeared to be the stewardess from earlier, her serving cart flipped over her masking her wounds from the eye. The seats themselves were reduced to small bits of plastic and foam, with the added contents of several bags thrown around for good measure. The necks of the few unmutilated bodies were torn open and the corpses scarred faces appeared to be even paler than their relatively new death warranted.

Yagari imagined that Hell looked much like this, with the addition of flames of course.

'_I am _so_ screwed right now, aren't I?' _

The vampire simply stood there, hands still in pockets, with his victims' blood dripping off his form an ever expanding pool around his feet. His head slowly lolled to the side and he fixed Yagari with a red stained smile, "your move hunter."

Toga took a deep breath as his eyes darted around the small enclosed space, _'I don't stand a chance going through him. His speed and strength give him the edge…I really should have kept at least one gun on me.' _His eyes zeroed in on the steel door at the far end of the decimated train car in front of him, _'I need to get there. Only one problem: a deranged blood sucking leech in front of me.' _His eyes whipped to the headrest to his left and then to the streaking landscape outside the window, _'This isn't gonna work, is it?'_

With one fluid motion Yagari tore the headrest from the seat and proceeded to rush the now thoroughly amused vampire, who simply batted him aside and into the side of the car. "Pathetic. Is this what you humans are capable of without your precious weapons?" The laughter suddenly stopped and morphed into a sneer as the vampire crouched, "when I'm done with you, I'll have the rest of the train for dessert!" With that remark, the vampire launched himself at Toga, nail lengthening into claws extended and fangs bared in a ferocious snarl.

Yagari waited until the very last moment before he brought the headrest up in front of his chest, and allowing the vampire's claws to ram right into the center of it. Yagari twisted the headrest as quickly as he could to the left, forcing the vampire to veer off course and slam face first into the glass window, causing cracks to spider out from the impact point. However, the vampire's fangs didn't veer far enough from their intended target; instead of plunging into Yagari's throat as planned, they instead serrated his left shoulder, tearing off a fairly large patch of skin and staining Yagari's already battered clothes crimson. Amazingly though, his hat didn't even so much as shift on his head.

Letting go of the headrest and spinning around behind the vampire, Yagari plowed into the vampire's back, pushing him furthermore into the glass. Hurriedly jumping back, Yagari proceeded to kick the vampire between the shoulder blades several times in quick succession, not allowing the vampire to recover enough to retaliate, each time breaking the glass more and more until finally the glass shattered and the vampire fell head first out of the train into the dark landscape whipping by the train. With a ragged sigh Yagari collapsed to the ground, the adrenalin in his system slowly bleeding away. He wiped his sweaty brow with the sleeve of his coat and repositioned his eye patch so it didn't bite into his flesh so much, careful to not move his injured shoulder too much.

Pushing himself off of the ground, Yagari calmly walked over to one of the numerous corpses and ripped a blue sleeve off of what appeared to be at one time a business man. He then produced a blue bottle from one of the numerous inside pockets of his coat and dumped the contents onto his wounded shoulder, hissing in pain. _'At least the damned thing is semi-clean now.'_ Next he wrapped it around his shoulder and tightly knotted it, careful to position the knot so that it didn't interfere with his movements too much.

With his wound at least covered, Yagari calmly walked into the hellish scene that was the last car. The rent-a-cop was now moaning but appeared to still be unconscious, however, the stewardess apparently has succumbed to her wounds. Her breathing had stopped. Squatting down, Yagari flipped her cart over to see how bad her wounds had been. He shuddered, no one deserved to die like that: with all their organs spewing from their body and their legs snapped and sticking in different and impossible directions. _'Rest in peace lady, the bastard's paid for his crime in full.'_ Out of respect for the dead, Yagari placed the upturned cart back over her lower body.

Standing back up, he wandered over to the now slightly-awake-but-still-incoherent rent-a-cop and shook him a little more roughly then was necessary, after all it was this idiot that had made him check in _every single weapon he had_…

"Hey, idiot," Yagari began in a low growl, "which of the several hundred keys on your belt opens the damned safe?" When all he got was a gurgle and some jumble of words that sounded suspiciously like 'oh my god, this isn't happening' only with much more fear and disbelief behind them, Yagari shook the fat slob even harder. "Which damned key is it?" this time his voice was much louder and even more irate, but it seemed to do the job.

The overweight, slightly graying man turned his head towards Yagari and looked at him with bleary, unfocussed brown eyes, "Uh – the o-one with the red dot on the handle…" Yagari roughly hauled the pathetic excuse of a man to his feat and slapped him, literally, out of his stupor. "Ok idiot," Yagari said as he yanked the keychain off the man's belt, "now make yourself useful and go up front, reassure the mob of half-wits you encounter on your way, and tell the driver or whoever is in charge that he needs to radio ahead for some help."

"G-got it," the blubbering man gasped out.

Yagari wasn't about to delude himself by actually thinking the useless imbecile would actually be able to accomplish the task, but he also knew that the rent-a-cop would be utterly useless – and most likely dead – if the two of them stayed in the same room for any length of time. So as the small fleshy mountain passed out of the car, Yagari allowed himself to mumble under his breath something that sounded suspiciously like "should've let 'em die," if anyone had been there to hear him…

With an exasperated shake of his head and a quick check of his impromptu bandage, Yagari returned to the task at hand: getting his things back. He idly flipped through the assortment of keys looking for his source of salvation; most of them had some sort of abbreviated code etched into their respective handles, but a few had handwritten descriptions on masking tape wrapped around the handle – most likely so that the rent-a-cop would know what key he actually needed to use. In the background he could hear the opening of the next car's door, _'Good, the idiot is moving. Slowly, sure, but what else can you expect from a civilian?' _

Casually flipping through a few more keys, Yagari spotted his deliverance: a normal brass key with a red dot on its handle. _'Finally!'_ He quickly shuffled to the vault door, inserted the key and opened the door. He nearly cried in happiness at the sight that greeted him: resting on several black felt shelves were his numerous guns. On the top shelf were his four handguns: the Sig P226 and the Smith and Wesson 500. Next to those were his two survival knives, which had the advantage of being both useful in combat and in also when he found himself in the middle of a forest chasing after a target, which happened more than he cared to admit. Below those beloved items were his heavy hitters: his old M4 carbine and his tried and true pump action shotgun. He grabbed his knives and was about to put them back into their sheaths when a cold hand grabbed the back of his neck…

"DIE YOU DAMNED HUMAN!"

The first thoughts that flicked through his mind right before his head met the side of the car was a slightly bemused, _'Well, I guess it wasn't the rent-a-cop that opened the door.'_ The impact snapped his head sharply to the side and made his already mangled shoulder throb in agony. He scrambled to his feet only to be met with a designer leather foot to his stomach, causing him to double over gasping for air. He pulled his hands up to protect his face just in time to meet a left hook to his temple, one which would have probably ended his life a bit earlier than he would have liked.

He quickly ducked under the vampire's next swing and rolled to his right, losing his hat in the process. He scrambled back up to his feet and threw himself at his assailant, tackling him to the ground before throwing a few punches of his own to the vampire's face. The rewarding sound of the jaw breaking was music to his ears, _'I didn't think this would be over _that_ fast.'_ The vampire snarled and spat blood into Yagari's face before swinging his cold fist into Yagari's side and knocking him off his attacker and back onto his back. The vampire propped himself up with an elbow and brought his other forearm down into Toga's stomach, again driving the air from his lungs and causing him to curl up into himself in an attempt to regain his breath.

The vampire stood and held his broken jaw in his left hand while his right lowered to grip Toga's white shirt and throw him into the far corner of the car opposite the door causing his head to spin. The vampire stumbled over to Toga, and kicked him several times in the side which caused him to arch his back in pain. He fell back onto his back and half glared, half sneered at the vampire that towered above him. He couldn't see anything beyond the vampire and he couldn't hear anything over the combination of wind rushing in trough the shattered windows and the blood pounding in his ears, but Toga did know one thing: he wasn't going to go down without one last insult.

"I'll be sure to say hello to the Devil when I get to Hell. Maybe a friend will be able to send you to see me in the not-so-distant future you blood sucking leech!" he wheezed out between his bleeding lips.

The vampire might not have been able to snarl properly because of the broken jaw, but it didn't take a genius to understand what he meant to say, "DIE YOU BASTARD!" He pulled back his right arm above his head and brought it down in a wide ark.

Toga Yagari closed his eyes. _'I'm not gonna have my last sight on this earth be a blood sucking vampire. Good luck Cross…'_

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The three shots rang out louder than normal in the enclosed car which caused Toga to wince in pain yet again, but the bullets did have the effect of flipping the vampire off to Yagari's left side. He blinked several times and lifted his head up to see the stunned rent-a-cop standing in the doorway, his gun smoking. Yagari forced himself up into a sitting position when he heard the roar from the wounded vampire.

What happened next seemed to be in slow motion.

The vampire pushed himself off the ground and threw himself at the rent-a-cop and plowed him into the ground. Yagari, reacting on years of training and field experience scrambled up and lunged over to the open safe, his thoughts consumed by one thought: _'Please God let the guns still be loaded!'_ His legs gave out just in front of the shelves and in the background he heard the distinct sucking sound of a chest being opened. He spun around to face his assailant and grasped behind his back for any of his weapons, feeling a handel in his hand, he whipped his arm in front of him and fired.

The vampire had just finished ripping the rent-a-cop's chest wide open and was beginning to stand back up and turn back to his original prey when Toga fired, adding six new holes to the pale body: three in the chest, two in the head and a single shot in the right shoulder.

The vampire dropped like a sack of bricks and quickly dissolved into a fine grey dust.

Yagari allowed himself to sigh in relief and drop his arm and the handgun to the ground at his side. He leaned his head back against the bottom shelf and closed his eyes, the pain from all of his gashes starting to register in his mind. He opened his eyes and tilted his head to the side and gazed upon his battered hat with sardonic smile on his face, _'how does that thing keep surviving these things in better condition than I do?'_

He let his head slump backwards and resigned himself to wait until the train stopped and – hopefully – the idiots who called themselves policemen arrived on the scene and who would no doubt hassle him more than was truly necessary.

He couldn't help himself, he cracked a smile.

'_I hate trains.'_

--I--

---o-o-oOo-o-o---

I I

The room was dark, lit only by the dull glow of an almost dead fire which cast inky black shadows out into the room, only adding to the darkness. The room might have been considered elegant several hundred years ago, what with the high backed chairs and the rich oak furniture, however, the very feel of the room seemed to say "stay away or suffer the consequences". It was a room few ever had the privilege to enter, and those that did found themselves never wanting to return. It was a dark room, just like the lone figure who occupied it.

He sat, stiff backed, in the closest chair to the fire. His dark clothes seemed to soak up any light in the room and only served to enhance the aura of darkness that the room was permeated with. In one hand he held a wine goblet half filled with a red liquid, while his other arm sat on the hand of the chair, its white marble color a sharp contrast against the chair's dark color. He made no movements save for the occasional sip from his goblet, but other than that, he remained still.

The phone next to his arm hadn't rung yet, but he knew one way or another it would soon. Either the gambit had succeeded, or it had not. Either way, a portion of his plan had been accomplished.

Now all he had to do was wait for the call…

--I--

---o-o-oOo-o-o---

I I

She bit her lower lip in trepidation, her white teeth striking against her red lipstick. She was hot all of a sudden, a mixture of fear and anxiety that went right along with her ignorance in regards to the entire plan. She didn't like being out of the loop, nor did she enjoy losing a valuable pawn, but that at least had been postponed for the moment it seemed. It needed to be dealt with, but now it would need to be handled with even more care.

She was going up against something that made even her collaborator proceed with caution, and seeing that this phase was his plan, she knew very little as to what the next part was. All she knew was the endgame and what it meant for her…

She fanned herself as she made the call.

--I--

---o-o-oOo-o-o---

I I

He picked up the ringing phone with his unnaturally pale hand and brought it to his slightly pointed ear, "Yes?"

"We just received word. He's failed."

He gave a slight pause and then the static of his breath, "Proceed with the rest of the plan."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I am. Just continue as planned and we will both have our goals met."

She sighed, "Alright."

Click. The line went dead.

He replaced the phone in its cradle and sipped the last of his glass's contents before he slowly rose to his feet and strode to the fireplace. He stared into the dying embers and smirked, "Now the pieces are in place and the game can truly begin."

He smiled.

He threw the glass into the fire and strode out of the room to finalize a few last minute details. After all, he had a Pureblood to rescue didn't he?

--I--

---o-o-oOo-o-o---

I I

* * *

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. -- James Michener

* * *

**AN:** Ok, before you all start harping on me about the whole 'it's almost been a year without an update' thing, let me say this: I rewrote this chapter seven different times trying to craft it to my liking. As it says on my Bio page, I will not post anything until it is something I think is worthy of being posted. End of discussion. Now that we have taken care of that little problem, I would like to thank those of you who have been patiently waiting for this update. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but I will say this much, things are going to get a lot more exciting from here on out. If you're not a fan of cursing, then I apologize for this chapter and the ones that will follow this. My thought is this: Yagari is a fighter, and a very experienced one at that. As Tim O'Brien wrote: _Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty._ Sorry if you do not agree/approve. (If you haven't noticed, I kinda like Yagari as a character…) More of the rest of the cast next time, I promise!

I know some of you don't want to, but I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed this chapter and gave me some ideas about how to make this better, I know I'm not that greatest writer, but I would like to get a little better and all the help I can get does help. Believe me. Oh, and any flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

There's the review button, you know what to do!

No, seriously, please hit it.

You can just leave your impression of the story so far, I'm not that picky!

I'll give you virtual ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles!

Please?


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